
THE DUTY 



OF 



AMERICAN WOMEN 



TO THEIR 



COUNTRY. 



NEW-YORK: 
Habpek & Brothers, 82 Clifp-St. 






^\^ 






U 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by 

Harper & Brothers, 
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. 



/,. 



- \ 



; \. .-N. 



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THE DUTY OF 

AMERICAN WOMEN 

TO THEIR COUNTRY. 



My countrywomen, you often hear it said 
that intelligence and virtue are indispensable 
to the safety of a democratic government like 
ours, where the people hold all the power. 
You hear it said, too, that our country is in 
great peril from the want of this intelligence 
and virtue. But these words make a faint 
impression, and it is the object of what fol- 
lows to convey these truths more vividly to 
your minds. 

This will be attempted, by presenting some 
recent events, in a country where a govern- 
ment similar to our own was undertaken, by a 
people destitute of that intelligence and virtue 
so indispensable ; and then it will be shown 
that similar dangers are impending over our 
own country. The grand point to be illus- 
trated is, that a people without education have 
not intelligence enough to know what meas- 
ures will secure safety and prosperity, nor 
virtue enough to pursue even what they know 



4 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

to be right, so that, when possessed of power, 
they will adopt ruinous measures, be excited 
by base passions, and be governed by wicked 
and cruel men. 

Look, then, at France during that awful pe- 
riod called the Reign of Terror. First, observe 
the process by which the power passed into 
the hands of the people. An extravagant 
king, a selfish aristocracy, an exacting priest- 
hood, had absorbed all the wealth, honour, 
and power, until the people were ground to 
the dust. All offices of trust and emolument 
were in the hands of the privileged few, all 
laws made for their benefit, all monopolies 
held for their profit, while the common people 
were condemned to heavy toils, with returns 
not sufficient to supply the necessities of life, 
so that, in some districts, famine began to stalk 
through the land. 

Speedily the press began to unfold these 
wrongs, and at the same time, Lafayette and 
his brave associates returned from our shores, 
and spread all over the nation enthusiastic ac- 
counts of happy America, where the people 
govern themselves, unoppressed by monopoly, 
or king, or noble, or priest. The press teems 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 5 

With exciting pages, and orators 'inflame the 
public mind to a tempest of enthusiasm. The 
court and the aristocratic party cower before 
the storm ; and ere long, the eleven hundred 
representatives of the people are seen march- 
ing, in solemn pomp, through the streets of the 
capital, while the whole land rings with accla- 
mations of joy. They take their seats, on an 
equality with nobles and king, and proceed to 
form a constitution, securing the rights of the 
people. It is adopted, and swofti to, by the 
whole nation, with transports and songs, while 
they vainly imagine that all their troubles are 
at an end. But the representatives, chosen by 
the people, had not the wisdom requisite for 
such arduous duties as were committed to 
them, nor had the people themselves the intel- 
ligence and virtue indispensable for such a 
change. Men of integrity and ability were not 
selected for the new offices created. Fraud, 
peculation, rapine, and profusion abounded. 
Everything went wrong, and soon the coun- 
try was more distressed than ever. " What 
is the cause of this ?" the people demand of 
their representatives. " It is the aristocrats ^^ 
is the reply ; " it is the king ; it is the nobles ; 
A3 



AMERICAN WOMEN ! 



it is the clergy. They oppose and thwart all 
our measures ; they will not allow our new 
Constitution to work, and therefore it is that 
you suffer." And so the people are filled with 
rage at those whom they suppose to be the 
cause of their disappointment and sufferings. 
The clergy first met the storm. " These bish- 
ops and priests, with their vast estates, and 
splendid mansions, and rich incomes — they beg- 
gar the people, that they may riot on the spoils" 
And so the populace rage and thunder around 
the national Hall of Legislation till they carry 
their point, and laws are passed confiscating 
the property of the clergy, and driving them 
to exile or death. Their vast estates pass into 
the control of the National Legislature, and for 
a time, abundance and profusion reign. The 
people have bread, and the office-seekers gain 
immense spoils. But no wisdom or honesty is 
found to administer these millions for the good 
of the people. In a short time, all is gone ; 
distress again lashes the people to madness, 
and again they demand why they do not gain 
the promised plenty and prosperity. ''It is 
the aristocrats," is the reply ; " it is the king ; 
it is the nobles ; it is the rich men. They 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 7 

oppose all our measures, therefore nothing 
succeeds, and the people are distressed." 

Next, the nobles meet the storm. " They 
are traitors ; they are enemies of the people ; 
they are plotting against our liberties ; they are 
living in palaces, and rolling in splendid car- 
riages from the hard earnings of the poor." 
The populace rage against them all over the 
land. They besiege the House of Represent- 
atives ; they beseech — they threaten. At last 
they carry their point ; the estates of the no- 
bles are seized ; they are declared traitors, and 
doomed to banishment or death. Again mill- 
ions are placed at the control of the people's 
agents. It is calculated that by this and for- 
mer confiscations, more than a thousand mill- 
ions of dollars were seized for the use of the 
people. Again fraud, peculation, profusion, 
and mismanagement abound, till all this incom- 
prehensible treasure vanishes away. 

Meantime, all the laws have been altered ; 
all the property has passed from its wonted 
owners to new hands ; the wealthy, educated, 
and noble are down ; the poor, the ignorant, 
the base hold the offices, wealth, and power. 
Everything is mismanaged. Everything goes 



8 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

wrong. The people grow distracted with 
their sufferings, and again demand the cause. 
" It is the king ; it is his extravagant Austrian 
queen, who rules him and his court. They 
thwart all our measures. They are sending 
to brother kings for soldiers to crush our lib- 
erties. They are gathering armies on our 
borders to overwhelm us." 

Next, the helpless king and his family be- 
come the mark for popular rage. Every in- 
dignity and insult was inflicted and borne with 
a patient fortitude that extorted admiration, till 
finally the king is first led forth to a bloody 
death ; next the queen is sacrificed ; next the 
virtuous sister of the king ; and, last, the little 
dauphin is barbarously murdered. 

Still misery rules through the nation. The 
friends of the king and former government, 
and all the peaceable citizens and supporters 
of order, are called aristocrats, and every art 
devised to render them objects of fear, suspi- 
cion, and hatred, especially such of them as 
hold property to tempt the cupidity of the peo- 
ple. Through the whole land two parties ex- 
ist ; one the distressed, bewildered, exaspera- 
ted people, raging for their rights, and driven 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 9 

to madness by the fancied opposition of aris- 
tocrats ; the other a trembling, cowering mi- 
nority, suffering insult, and fear, and robbery, 
and often a cruel death. 

And now priests and nobles and king and 
queen are all gone, and yet the people are 
more distressed than ever before. Amid these 
scenes of violence, confusion, and misrule, con- 
fidence has ceased, commerce has furled the 
sail, trade has closed the door, manufactures 
ceased their din, and agriculture forsaken the 
plough. 

There is no money, no credit, no confidence, 
no employment, no bread. Famine, and pes- 
tilence, and grief, and rage, and despair brood 
over the land. Again the people cry to their 
representatives, " Why do you not give us the 
promised prosperity and plenty ? We have 
nothing to eat, nothing to wear ; our business 
and trades are at an end. The nations around 
us are gathering to devour us, and what is the 
cause of all these woes ?" 

" It is the Girondists," is the reply ; " it is 
this party among the people's representatives. 
They are traitors ; they have been bribed ; they 
have joined with foreign aristocrats and kings. 



10 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

They interrupt all our measures, and they are 
the cause of all your sufferings." 

And now the people turn their rage upon 
the most intelligent and well-meaning portion 
of their representatives, who have been stri- 
ving to stem the worst excesses of those who 
yield entirely to the dictation of the mob. 
After a period of storms and threats and vio- 
lence, at length a majority is gained against 
them, and a decree is passed condemning a 
large portion of the National Legislature as trai- 
tors, while their leaders are borne forth by the 
exulting mob to a bloody death. Still the dis- 
tress of the people is unrelieved, and again 
they clamour for the cause. " It is the party 
opposed to us," say ths Jacobins, with Robes- 
pierre at their head ; " they are the traitors ; 
they will not adopt the measures which will 
save the people from these ills." 

" Cut them down !" cries the populace ; and 
again another portion of the people's repre- 
sentatives are led forth to death. 

And now Robespierre, the leader of the low- 
est mob of all, is supreme dictator, and all 
power is lodged with this coldest-blooded ruf- 
fian that ever doomed his fellow-beings to a 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 11 

violent death. This was the Reign of Terror, 
when the mob had gained complete mastery, 
and this man, its advocate and organ, adminis- 
tered its awful energies. Look, then, for a mo- 
ment, at the picture. 

But the horrors of this period are so incred- 
ible, the atrocities so monstrous, that the tale 
will be regarded with distrust, without some 
previous indication of the causes which led to 
such results. 

Let it be remembered, then, that this whole 
revolutionary movement was, in fact, a war 
of the common people upon the classes above 
them. Let it be remembered, too, that the 
French people, by the press, and by emissaries 
all over Europe, had invoked the lower classes 
of all nations to make common cause with 
them. " War to the palace, and peace to the 
cottage," was their watchword. Every throne 
began to shake, and every person of rank, tal- 
ents, and wealth felt his own safety involved 
in the contest. It was thus that the revolu- 
tionary leaders felt that they were contending 
for their lives, against the whole wealth, aris- 
tocracy, and monarchical power of Europe. 

In France itself, individual ambition, hate, 



12 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

envy, or vengeance added fearful power to this 
war of contending classes. Not only every 
leader, but every, individual, found in the op- 
posing party some rival to displace, or some 
private grudge to revenge, while ten thousand 
aspirants for office demanded sacrifices, in or- 
der to secure vacated places. At last the 
struggle became so imbittered and desperate, 
that each man looked out only for himself. 
Friend gave up friend to save his own life, or 
to secure pohtical advancement, till confidence 
between man and man perished, and society 
became a mass of warring elements, excited 
by every dreadful passion. 

Few men are deliberately cruel from the 
mere love of cruelty. Thousands, under the 
influence of fear, revenge, ambition, or hate, 
become selfish, reckless, and cruel. When, 
too, in conflicts where men feel that by the 
hands of opponents they have lost property, 
home, honour, and country ; when they have 
seen their dearest friends slaughtered or starv- 
ed, then, when the hour of retaliation arrives, 
pity and sympathy are dead, and every bale- 
ful passion rages. Thus almost every man in 
the conflict had suffered : if a democrat, from 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 13 

those above him ; if an aristocrat, from those 
below him. 

Meantime, reHgion, that powerful principle 
in humanizing and restraining bad passions, 
had well-nigh taken her flight. The war upon 
the clergy at length turned to a war upon the 
religion they reg^sented, till atheism became 
the prevailing principle of the nation. 

By a public act, the leaders of the people 
declared their determination " to dethrone the 
King of Heaven, as well as the monarchs of 
the earth." For this end, the apostate clergy, 
put in the places of those exiled, were induced 
to come before the bar of the National Legis- 
lature and publicly abjure Christianity, and 
declare that "no other national religion was 
now required but liberty, equality, and moral- 
ity." 

On this occasion, crowds of drunken arti- 
sans appeared before the bar of the house^ 
trampling under foot the cross, the sacrament- 
al vases, and other emblems of religious faith. 
A vile woman, dressed as the Goddess of Rea- 
son, was publicly embraced by the presiding 
officer of the National Legislature, and con- 
ducted by him to a magnificent car, and fol- 
B 



14 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

lowed by immense crowds to the grand Ca- 
thedral of Notre Dame, where she was seated 
on an altar, and there received the worship of 
the multitudes. The Sabbath, by a national 
decree, was abolished ; the Bible wfis burned 
publicly by the executioner ; and on the grave- 
yards was inscribed, "Del^jh is an eternal 
sleep 1" ^ 

At Lyons, a similar scene was enacted, 
where a fete in honour of Liberty was cele- 
brated. The churches were all closed, the 
Decade, or Sabbath of Reason, proclaimed, 
and an image of a vile character was carried 
in procession, followed by vast crowds, shout- 
ing, " Down with the aristocrats ! Long life to 
the guillotine 1" After the image came an ass, 
bearing the Cross, the Bible, and the commu- 
nion service ; and these were led to an altar, 
where a fire was lighted, the Cross and Bible 
burned, the communion bread trampled under 
foot, and the ass made to drink out of the com- 
munion cup. Wherever democracy reigned, 
the services of religion were interrupted, the 
burial service vanished, baptisms ceased, the 
sick and dying were unconsoled by religion, 
while every species of vice, obscenity, and 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 15 

licentiousness were practised without conceal- 
ment or control. The establishments for char- 
ity, the hospitals, and all humane institutions 
were swept away, and their funds seized by 
the agents of the people. Even the sepul- 
chres of the dead were upturned. The noble, 
the wise, and the ancient, the barons of feudal 
ages, the heroes of the Crusades, the military 
chieftains, the ancient kings, resting in long- 
hallowed tombs, the mightiest monarchs of the 
nation, the " chief ones of the earth," were 
moved from their rest, and rose to meet the 
coming of this awful day, while the treasures 
of their tombs were I'ifled by vulgar hands, 
and their very sculls kicked around as foot- 
balls for sport. 

Meantime the sovereigns of Europe were 
making preparations to meet this flood of 
democratic lava, which threatened to overflow 
every surrounding land. Vast armies began 
to gather on every side, and avenging navies 
hovered along the shores. This added the 
fervour of patriotic devotion to the mania of 
democracy. 

" Ye sons of France I awake to glory ! 

Hark ! hark ! what myriads bid you rise ! 
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary, 
Behold their tears, and hear their cries ! 



16 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

Shall hateful tyrants, mischief breeding. 

With hireling hosts, a ruffian band, 

Affright and desolate our land, 
While Peace and Liberty lie bleeding ? 
To arms ! to arms ! ye brave ! 
The avenging sword unsheath ! 
March on ! march on ! to victory or death !" . 

These inspiring sentiments, sung in the 
thrilling notes of the Marseilles Hymn, were 
echoed from one end of the land to the other, 
awakening a whirlwind of enthusiasm. The 
wants of thousands thrown out of employ, join- 
ed with the excitement of patriotism, raised an 
army unparalleled in numbers. It is calculated 
that, at one time, one million two hundred thou- 
sand Frenchmen were thus enrolled, and at the 
command of the National Legislature, while the 
millions of property, not otherwise squander- 
ed, were employed to clothe, feed, and equip 
this incomprehensible multitude. All France 
was bristling like an armed field ; while every 
mandate of government, backed as it was by 
such a military force, was utterly resistless. 
Thus it was that the Reign of Terror was so 
silent, awful, and hopeless. 

Behold, then, through the terror-stricken and 
miserable land, the national troops employed 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 17 

in arresting every person suspected of favour- 
ing aristocracy, or conspicuous as the holder 
of wealth, or object of hate, envy, or suspi- 
cion to all in the possession of power. Be- 
hold the prisons of the capital, of the provin- 
cial cities, and of the country villages, cram- 
med to overflowing with the rich, the noble, 
and the learned. No regard was paid to sta- 
tion, age, or sex. Gray hairs and blooming 
childhood, stern warriors and beautiful maidens, 
coarse labourers and noble matrons, were hud- 
dled together into the damps, and filth, and 
darkness of a common dungeon, while the 
guillotine daily toiled in its bloody work of 
death. 

Whenever a fresh supply of funds was de- 
manded for the national service, a new alarn:a> 
of invasion or of counter-revolution was spread^ 
and then followed new arrests of those suspect- 
ed, or of those who held any species of wealth,. 
In disposing of captives to make room for new 
supplies, some were poniarded in prison, some 
shot, and some guillotined. At last, it was 
found needful to adopt a more summary 
method, and the National Legislature decreed 
that the land must be cleared of traitors and 
B2 



18 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

aristocrats, not by trial and single execution, 
but by a slaughter of masses. A corps was 
formed of the most determined and blood- 
thirsty, and sent all over the land to execute 
this mandate. In carrying out this unparalleled 
system of cold-blooded murder, various modes 
were adopted. One was called the Republican 
Baptism, by which men, women, and children 
were placed in a vessel with a trap-door in the 
bottom, and carried out into the midst of the 
waves ; then the trap-door was opened, and 
the crew, getting into a boat, left their victims 
to perish. Another method was called the 
Republican Marriage. By this, two of the 
opposite sex, generally an old person and a 
young one, were bereft of all clothing, then 
tied together, and, after being tortured a while, 
thrown into the waves. Another mode was 
called the mitrillade or fusillade. Sixty, or 
more, captives w^ere bound, and ranged in two 
files along a deep ditch dug for the purpose. 
At the two extremities of each file, w^ere placed 
cannons loaded with grapeshot, and, at a given 
signal, these were discharged on this mass of 
human beings. But a few were entirely killed 
at the first discharge. Wounded and muti- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 19 

lated, they fell in heaps, or crawled forth, and, 
with piercing shrieks, entreated the soldiers to 
end their sufferings with death. Three suc- 
cessive discharges did not accomphsh the 
work, which was finally ended by the swords 
of the soldiery. Next day, the same scene was 
renewed on a larger scale, more than two 
hundred prisoners being thus destroyed. This 
was repeated day after day ; while, on one oc- 
casion, the commanding officer rose from a 
carouse, and with thirty Jacobins and twenty 
courtesans, went out to enjoy a view of the 
horrid scene. 

At Toulon the mitrillades were repeated, till 
at least eight hundred were thus slaughtered 
in a population of less than ten thousand. In 
Lyons, during only five months, six thousand 
persons suffered death, and among these were 
a great portion of the noblest and most vir- 
tuous citizens. At Toulon, one of the victims 
was an old man of eighty-four, and his only 
crime was the possession of eighty thousand 
pounds, of which he ofl^ered all but a mere 
trifle to escape so shocking a death, but in 
vain. Bonaparte, who saw these horrors, says, 
" When I beheld this poor old man executed, 



20 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

I felt as if the end of the world was at 
hand." 

At Nantz, five hundred children, of both 
sexes, the oldest not fourteen, were led out to 
be shot. Never before was beheld so piteous 
a sight ! The stature of the little ones was so 
low that the balls passed over their heads, and, 
shrieking v^ith terror, they burst their bonds, 
and, rushing to their murderers, they implored 
for pity and life. But in vain ; the sabre finish- 
ed the dreadful work, and these babes were 
slaughtered at their feet. 

At another time, a large body of women, 
most of them with young children, were car- 
ried out into the Loire, and while the uncon- 
scious little ones were smiling and caressing 
their distressed mothers, these mothers were 
bereft of all clothing, and thrown with their 
infants into the waves. 

At another time, three hundred young girls 
were drowned in one night at Nantz, where, 
for some months, every night, hundreds of 
persons were carried forth and thrown into 
the river, while their shrieks awoke the in- 
habitants, and froze every heart with terror. 
In this city, in a single month, either by hun- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 21 

ger, the diseases of prison, or violence, fifteen 
thousand persons perished, and more than 
double that number during the Reign of Terror. 

In the prisons not less dreadful . sufferings 
were endured. In these foul and gloomy- 
abodes, the cells were dark, humid, and filthy ; 
the straw, their only beds, became so putrid 
that the stench was horrible, while enormous 
rats and every species of vermin preyed on 
the wretched inmates. In such dens as these 
were gathered the rank, the beauty, the tal- 
ents, and the wealth of Paris, and the chief 
cities of the land. Here, too , degraded turn- 
keys, attended by fierce dogs, domineered over 
their victims, while on one side were threats, 
oaths, obscenity, and insult, and on the other 
were vain arguments, useless supphcations, 
and bitter tears. 

Every night the wheels of the rolling car 
were heard, coming to carry another band of 
victims to their doom. Then the bars of the 
windows and wickets of the doors were 
crowded by anxious listeners, to learn wheth- 
er their own names were called, or to see their 
friends led out to death. Those summoned 
l^ade a hasty farewell to their friends. The 



22 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

husband left the arms of his frantic wife, the 
father was torn from his weeping children, the 
brother and sister, the neighbour and friend, 
parted and went forth to die, while survivers, 
picturing the last agonies of those they loved, 
or waiting their own fate, suffered a living 
death, till again the roll of the approaching 
car renewed the universal agony. 

To such a degree did thi§ protracted torture 
prey upon the mind, that many became reck- 
less of life, and many longed for death as a re- 
lief. 

In many cases, women died of terror when 
their cell door was opened, supposing their 
hour of doom was come. 

The prison floors were often covered with 
infants, distressed by hunger, or in the agonies 
of death. One evening, three hundred infants 
were in one prison ; the next morning all were 
drowned ! When the citizens once remonstra- 
ted at this useless cruelty, the reply was, " They 
are all young aristocratic vipers — let them be 
stifled !" 

Such accumulated horrors annihilated the 
sympathies and charities of life. Calamity 
rendered every man suspicious. Those pass- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 23 

ing in the streets feared to address their near- 
est friends. As wealth was a mark for ruin, 
all put on coarse, or squalid raiment. Abroad, 
no symptom of animation was seen, except 
when prisoners were led forth to slaughter, 
and then the humane fled, and the hard-heart- 
ed rushed forward to look upon the agonies 
of death. In the family circle, all was fear 
and distrust. The sound of a footstep, a voice 
in the street, a knock at the door, sent paleness 
to the cheek. Night brought little repose, and 
in the morning all eyed each other distrustful- 
ly, as if-traitors were lurking there. 

But there is a limit to the power of mental 
suffering ; and one of the saddest features of 
this awful period was the torpid apathy, which 
settled on the public mind, so that, eventually, 
the theatres, which had been forsaken, began 
to be thronged, and the multitude relieved 
themselves by farces and jokes, unconcerned 
whether it was twenty, or a hundred of their 
fellow-citizens, who were led forth to die. 

Learning and talent were as fatal to their 
possessors as rank and wealth. The son of 
BufFon the naturalist, the daughter of the elo- 
quent Vernay, Roucher the poet, and even the 
illustrious Lavoisier, in the midst of his philo- 



24 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

sophical experiments, were cut down. A few 
more weeks of slaughter would have swept 
off all the literary talent of France. 

During the revolutionary period, it is cal- 
culated that not less than two hundred thou- 
sand persons suffered imprisonment, besides 
those who were put to death, of whom the 
following list is furnished by the Republicans 
themselves: 

Twelve hundred and seventy-eight nobles, 
seven hundred and fifty women of rank, four- 
teen hundred of the clergy, and thirteen thou- 
sand persons not noble, perished by the guil- 
lotine under decrees of the tribunals of the 
people. 

To this, add the victims at Nantz, which are 
arranged in this mournful catalogue : 

Children shot 500 

Children drowned ..... 1500 

Women shot 264 

Women drowned .... 500 
Priests shot and drowned . . 760 
Nobles drowned ..... 1400 
Artisans drowned .... 5300 
The whole number destroyed at Nants, of 
which the above is a portion only, was thirty- 
two thousand. 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 25 

To these add those slaughtered in the wars 
of La Vendee, viz., nine hundred thousand 
men, fifteen thousand women, and twenty-two 
thousand children. To this add the victims 
at Lyons, numbering thirty-one thousand. To 
this, add those who are recorded thus : " wom- 
en who died of grief, or premature childbirth, 
three thousand seven hundred ;" and we have 
a sum-total of one million twenty-two thousand 
human beings destroyed by violence. How 
many should be added, as those who died of 
prison sufferings, or from the pangs and priva- 
tions of exile, or from famine and from pesti- 
lence consequent on this state of anarchy and 
violence, who can enumerate ? 

At some periods, such was the awful slaugh- 
ter, that the rivers were discoloured with blood, 
in Paris, a vast aqueduct was dug to carry off 
the gore to the Seine, and four men employed 
in conducting it to this reservoir. In the riv- 
er Loire, the corpses accumulated so that birds 
of prey hovered all along its banks, the wa- 
ters became infected, and the fishes so poison- 
ous that the magistrates of Nantz forbade the 
fishermen to take them. 

Thus, in the language of another, " France 
C 



26 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

became a kind of suburb of the world of per- 
dition. Surrounding nations were lost in 
amazement as they beheld the scene. It seem- 
ed a prelude to the funeral of this great world, 
a stall of death, a den into which thousands 
daily entered and none were seen to return. 
Between ninety and a hundred of the leaders 
in this mighty work of death, fell by the hand 
of violence. Enemies to all men, they were 
of course enemies to each other. Butchers of 
the human race, they soon whetted the knife for 
each other's throats ; and the same Almighty 
Being who rules the universe, whose existence 
they had denied by a solemn act of legislation, 
whose perfections they had made the butt of 
public scorn, whose Son they had crucified 
afresh, and whose Word they had burned by 
the hands of a common hangman, swept them 
all, by the hand of violence, into an untimely 
grave. The tale made every ear that heard 
it tingle, and every heart chill with horror. 
It was, in the language of Ossian, * the song of 
death.' It was like the reign of the plague in 
a populous city. Knell tolled upon knell, 
hearse followed hearse, coffin rumbled after 
coffin, without a mourner to shed a tear, or a 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY 



? 27 



solitary attendant to mark the place of the 
o-rave. ' From one new moon to another, and 
from one Sabbath to another, the world went 
forth and looked upon the carcasses of the 
men who transgressed against God, and they 
were an abhorring unto all flesh/ " 

Such, my countrywomen, are the scenes 
which have been enacted in this very age, hi 
a land calling itself Christian, and boasting it- 
self as at the head of civilization and refine- 
ment. Do you say that such cruelty and 
bloodthirsty rage can never appear among us ; 
that our countrymen can never be so deluded 
by falsehood and blinded by passion ? 

Look, then, at scenes which have already 
occurred in our land. Look at Baltimore : it 
is night, and within one of its prisons are shut 
up some of its most excellent and respected 
citizens. They dared to use the rights of free- 
men, and express their opinions, and oppose 
the measures of the majority ; and for this, 
a fierce multitude is raging around those walls, 
demanding their blood. They force the doors, 
and, with murderous weapons, reach the room 
containing their victims. Some friendly hand 
extinguishes the lights, and in the protecting 



28 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

darkness they seek to escape. Some suc- 
ceed ; others are recognised, and seized, and 
stabbed, and trampled on, and dragged around 
in murderous fury. One of the noblest of 
these victims, apparently dead, is seized by 
some pitying neighbour, under the pretence of 
cruelty, and thrown into the river and carried 
over a fall. There he is drawn forth and re- 
stored to consciousness ; and there, too, it is 
discovered, that by Americans, by the hands of 
his fellow-citizens, his body has been stuck with 
scores of pins, deep plunged into his flesh ! 

Look, again, at the Southwest, and see gam- 
blers swinging uncondemned from a gallows, 
and among them a harmless man, whom the 
fury of the mob hung up without time for judge 
or jury to detect his innocence. 

See, on the banks of the Mississippi, fires 
blazing, and American citizens roasted alive 
by their fellow-citizens ! See, even in New- 
England, the boasted land of law and steady 
habits, a raging mob besets a house filled with 
women and young children. They set fire to 
it, and the helpless inmates are driven forth 
by the flames to the sole protection of dark- 
ness and the pitiless ruflaans. See, in Cincin- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 29 

nati, the poor blacks driven from their homes, 
insulted, beaten, pillaged, seeking refuge in 
prisons and private houses, and for days kept 
in constant terror and peril. 

See, in Philadelphia, one class of citizens ar- 
rayed in arms against another, both excited to 
the highest pitch of rage, both thirsting for 
each other's blood, while the civil authority 
can prevent universal pillage, misrule, and 
murder, only by volleys that shoot down neigh- 
bours, brothers, and friends. 

See, too, how the rage of political strife has 
threatened the whole nation with a civil war. 
South Carolina declares that she will not sub- 
mit to certain laws, which she claims are 
unconstitutional. Her own citizens are divi- 
ded into fierce parties, so exasperated that 
each is preparing to shoot down the other. 
Even the women are contributing their orna- 
ments to meet the expenses of the murderous 
strife. From neighbouring states, the troops 
are advancing, the ships of war are nearing 
their harbours. One single act of resistance, 
and the state had been the battle-field of that 
most bitter, most cruel, most awful of all con- 
flicts, a civil and a servile war. 
C2 



30 AMEKICAN WOMEN ! 

And all these materials of combustion are 
now slumbering in our bosom, pent up a while, 
but ready to burst forth, like imprisoned lava, 
and deluge the land. How easy it would be 
to bring the nation into fierce contest on the 
subject of slavery, that internal cancer which 
inflames the whole body politic ! How easy 
to array native citizens against foreign im- 
migrants, who at once oppose the prejudices 
and diminish the wages of those around them ! 
How easy to make one section believe that 
tariff", or tax, is sacrificing the prosperity of one 
portion to gratify the envy, or increase the 
luxuries of another ! 

How easy to make one class of humbler 
means, believe that bank, or monopoly, is de- 
stroying the fruit of their toil, to increase the 
overgrown wealth of a class above them ! 

And here is no standing army, such as is 
wielded by all other governments in sustain- 
ing law. When our communities are divided 
by interest or passion, the lawmakers, the judg- 
es, the jury, and the military are all partisans 
in the strife. 

Nor can one part of the Union suffer, and 
the other escape unharmed, as might be sup- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 31 

posed, amid this reckless talk about the disso- 
lution of the Union. An overt attempt to dis- 
solve the Union is treason ; and it can never be 
carried out without fierce parties in every state, 
ready to fight to the last gasp against such a 
suicidal act. Such a national dislocation would 
send a groan of agony through every city, 
town, and hamlet in our land ; civil war would 
blow her trump, citizen would be arrayed 
against citizen, and state against state, and the 
whole arch of heaven would be inscribed with 
" mourning, and lamentation, and wo." 

What, then, has saved our country from 
those wide-sweeping horrors that desolated 
France ? Why is it that, in the excitements 
of embargoes, and banks, and slavery, and ab- 
olition, and foreign immigration, the besom of 
destruction has not swept over the land ? It is 
because there has been such a large body oiedu. 
caferf citizens, who have had intelligence enough 
to understand how to administer the affairs of 
state, and a proper sense of the necessity of 
sustaining law and order ; who have had mor- 
al principle enough to subdue their own pas- * 
sions, and to use their influence to control the 
excited minds of others. Change our large 



32 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

body of moral, intelligent, and religious peo- 
ple to the ignorant, impulsive, excitable popu- 
lation of France, and in one month the horrors 
of the Reign of Terror would be before our 
eyes. Nothing can preserve this nation from 
such scenes but perpetuating this preponder- 
ance of intelligence and virtue. This is our 
only safeguard. 

What, then, are our prospects in this re- 
spect ? Look at the monitions recorded in our 
census. Let it be first conceded, that the fact 
that a man cannot read and write is not, in it- 
self, proof that he is not intelligent and virtuous. 
Many, in our country, by intercourse with men 
and things, by the discussions of religion and 
politics, and by the care of their affairs, gain 
much reflection and mental discipline. Still, 
a person who cannot read a word in a news- 
paper, nor a line in his Bible, and who has so 
little value for knowledge as to remain thus in- 
capacitated, as a general fact, is in the lowest 
grade of stupidity and mental darkness. So 
that the number w^ho cannot read and write is, 
perhaps, the surest exponent of the intellectual 
and moral state of a community. For though 
this list may embrace many intelligent and 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 33 

virtuous persons, on the other hand, there are 
probably as many, or more, of those classed 
as being able to read and Vi^rite, w^ho never 
have used this pov\^er, and who are among the 
most stupid and degraded of our race. 

Look, then, at the indications in our census. 
In a population of fourteen millions, we find 
one million adults who cannot read and write, 
and two millions of children without schools. 
In a few years, then, if these children come on 
to the stage with their present neglect, we sh^i^ 
have three millions of adults managing our 
state and national affairs, who cannot even 
read the Constitution they swear to support, 
nor a word in the Bible, or in any newspaper 
or book. Look at the West, where our dan- 
gers from foreign immigration are the great- 
est, and which, by its unparalleled increase, is 
soon to hold the sceptre of power. In Ohio, 
more than one third of the children attend no 
school. In Indiana and Illinois scarcely one 
half of the children have any schools. Mis- 
souri and Iowa send a similar, or worse report. 
In Virginia, one quarter of the white adults 
cannot even write their names to their appli- 
cations for marriage license. In North Caro- 



34 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

iina, more than half the adults cannot read and 
write. The whole South, in addition to her 
hordes of ignorant slaves, returns more than 
half her white children as without schools. 

My countrywomen, what is before us ? 
What awful forebodings arise ! Intelligence 
and virtue our only safeguards, and yet all 
this mass of ignorance among us, and hun- 
dreds of thousands of ignorant foreigners being 
yearly added to augment our danger ! 

# We are not even stationary. We are losing 
ground every day. Every hour the clouds 
are gathering blacker around us. Already it 
is found, that the number of voters who cannot 
read and write, and who yet decide every 
question of safety and interest, exceeds the 
great majority that brought in Harrison. Al- 
ready the number of criminals and felons, who, 
on dismission from jails and penitentiaries, are 
allowed to vote, exceeds the majority that 
brought in our chief magistrate in 1836 !* 

* The following is the mode of obtaining the facts stated 
above : 

In the census, 550,000 is the number of those who have con- 
fessed their inability to read and write. That many have claimed 
to be able to read and write, who are not, is thus established. 
In Virginia, every man, on applying for marriage license, musS 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 35 

Nor is the picture of our situation less mourn- 
ful, when we examine into the condition of 
young children in those states, which have 
done the most for education. Take New- 
York, for example, where, for forty years, the 
education of the people has been provided for 
by law, and where the very best school system 
in the world has recently gone into operation. 
It is the chief business of the Secretary of 
State, to take care of the common schools of 
the state, while, in every county, a deputy-su- 
perintendent, paid five hundred dollars each 

sign his name or make his mark. An examination was made 
in ninety-three out of 123, the whole number of the county 
courts giving license, and one quarter, and in many cases one 
third, of the applicants could not write their names. Their 
wives could not be any better educated. This indicates that 
certainly as many as one quarter of the white adults in the state 
cannot sign their names. One quarter of 329,959, which is the 
adult population of Virginia, is 82,489. But the census, instead 
of that number, gives only 58,789 who cannot read and write, a 
difference oi forty per cent. Take, then, the 550,000 who have 
confessed their ignorance, and z.dA forty per cent, for inaccuracy, 
and the number is 770,000. To these, add the increase since 
the census was taken, and those also who, by neglect, have lost 
all ability to read and write, and one million is a very moderate 
calculation for adult ignorance in this nation. Of these, at least 
175,000 are voters. General Harrison's majority, in 1840, was 
146,000, or 24,000 less than the number of voters who cannot read 
and write. — {8ee Mr. Mann's 4th of July Oration.) 
The census also records more children as attending school 



36 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

year for his services, devotes his whole time 
to the care of common schools. Every year 
these comity superintendents report to the Sec- 
retary of State, in regard to the situation of 
the schools in the county under their care. It 
is from these reports of the superintendents of 
schools in New- York, that we are enabled to 
draw a picture of the condition of young chil- 
dren in common schools, that should send a 
chill of fear and alarm through our country. 
For if this is the condition of young children in 
that state which has excelled all others in a 

than is the truth. Thus, in Massachusetts, the state records, 
presented to the Legislature, are very accurate, and these make 
the number several thousands less than the census. In 1840, 
our population was fourteen millions. One fourth of these are 
betvi^een four and sixteen, making 3,645,388 of an age to go to 
school. But the census, although exaggerating the number, 
shows only 1,845,244 as attending schools. This, deducted from 
the number of those of age to go to school, leaves 1,800,144, or 
nearly one half, who do not attend school. To these, add the in- 
crease since the census, and more than half the children of this 
nation are without schools ! 

The census also shows 4750 in penitentiaries, and their aver- 
age time of confinement is four years. An equal number were 
in jails for crime, and their average time of imprisonment is six 
months. Supposing them to live, on an average, eight years 
after their release, and we have 85,500 criminals as voters. 

In 1836, Mr. Van Buren's majority was 25,000. Thus it is 
shown, that the majority which elects our President is fkr out- 
numbered by the criminals who are allowed to vote. 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 37 

wise and liberal provision for the care of 
schools, what must be the condition of things 
.in other states, where still less interest is felt 
in this great concern ! 

The Secretary of State, in presenting the 
reports of the county superintendents to the 
Legislature of New- York, remarks thus : " The 
nakedness and deformity of the great majority 
of schools in this state, the comfortless and di- 
lapidated buildings, the unhung doors, broken 
sashes, absent panes, stilted benches, gaping 
walls, yawning roofs, and muddy and moulder- 
ing floors, are faithfully portrayed ; and many 
of the self-styled teachers, who lash and dog- 
matize in these miserable tenements of hu- 
manity, are shown to be low, vulgar, obscene? 
intemperate, and utterly incompetent to teach 
anything good. Thousands of the young are 
repelled from improvement, and contract a du- 
rable horror for books, by ignorant, injudicious, 
and cruel modes of instruction. When the 
piteous moans and tears of the little pupils sup- 
plicate for exemption from the cold drudgery, 
or more pungent suflfering of the school, let the 
humane parent be careful to ascertain the true 
cause of grief and lamentation." 
D 



30 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

To exhibit, more fully, the sufferings of little 
children at school, the following is abridged 
from these reports : 

Sufferings of Little Children from Bad School- 
houses. 

One of the county superintendents reports 
of the schoolhouses in his district : " One house 
in K. is literally unfit for a stable ; the sashes 
of several windows are broken, twenty or thir- 
ty panes of glass are out, the door is off, and 
used for a writing-table. Yet the district is 
wealthy, but * they cannot get a vote to build 
a new schoolhouse.' " " Another schoolhouse 
in W. is nearly as bad ; the gable ends falhng 
out, the chimney down, and the windows near- 
ly all boarded up." Many of the school- 
houses are situated in the highway, so that, at 
play, the children are endangered by the pass- 
ing horses and vehicles, and the traveller is 
also endangered by the rushing of boisterous 
boys, frightening his horses. Instances of this 
sort have repeatedly occurred. 

Another WTites, that in one of the largest 
landed districts, the worst log schoolhouse in 
the district is still retained, offering no securi- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 39 

ty against winds and storms. One of the win- 
dow^ sashes was " laid up overhead because it 
would not stay in its place." To keep the 
door shut against the wind, one end of a bench 
w^as put against it, and a boy set to tend it, 
as one and another went out. 

Another writes, that he often finds the school- 
houses situated on some bleak knoll, exposed 
to the howling blasts of winter and the scorch- 
ing rays of the summer's sun, or in some marsh 
or swamp, surrounded by stagnant pools, rife 
with miasma, and charged with disease and 
death. It is not uncommon, in such places, to 
find large schools almost entirely broken up 
by sickness, and that, too, when no contagious 
diseases are prevailing among children. 

One of these superintendents says, " A trus- 
tee of one school, where the schoolhouse was 
situated in a goose-pond, the water under the 
floor being several inches deep, told me his 
children were almost invariably obliged to 
leave school on account of sickness, and that 
the school was often broken up from this cause. 
Parents pay ten times as much for physi- 
cians to cure diseases contracted at school, 
as it would cost to build a comfortable school- 



40 AMERICAN women! 

house and supply it with every accommoda- 
tion." 

Another says of the schoolhouses in his 
county, that, in some cases, the latches are 
broken, so that, however cold the day, the door 
cannot be shut ; sometimes the sills are so rot- 
ten that snakes and squirrels can enter ; while 
there are cracks in the floor, one or two inches 
wide, and holes broken large enough for the 
children to fall through. 

The wretched condition of these houses is 
not owing to poverty, but to the leaden apathy 
on the subject of education, and the belief 
among farmers that their money can be bet- 
ter applied in building barns and stables for 
their cattle. In one large village, where a 
great sum has been expended for adorning 
public grounds, and where is much wealth and 
style, the two schoolhouses are the meanest- 
looking buildings in the place. 

Another says of the schoolhouses in his coun- 
ty, that, in many cases, they stand on the high- 
way, no cooling shade to protect them from the 
burning sun, exposed to the full fury of the 
wintry northwester, clapboards torn off) door 
just ready to fall, and great caution needed in 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 41 

order to keep from falling through the floor. 
In one case, an aperture in the roof was of 
such a size, that the teacher could give quite a 
lesson on astronomy by looking up at the 
heavens through the roof of the house. Fre- 
quently, to the grief of the teacher, when the 
parent brings his child the first day, such ex- 
pressions as these are heard from the cling- 
ing and distressed child, " Oh, pa, I don't want 
to stay in this ugly, old house ! Oh, pa, do 
take me home !" 

Sufferings of Little Children from Want of 
Accommodations at ScJlooI. 

One superintendent says, " But few of the 
schoolhouses are furnished with blinds or cur- 
tains to exclude the glare of the sun. ThuSj 
children suffer great uneasiness, headaches, 
and often serious affections of the eyes. I 
have found many cases of weakness of eyeSj 
approaching almost to blindness, caused by 
studying in such dazzling light." 

Another states, that in most schoolhouses 

the desks are so high, as to compel the scholar 

to write in a half-standing, half-sitting attitude ; 

while the seats for the smallest children are 

D2 



42 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

often twice the proper height, sometimes a 
hemlock slab with legs at one end, and a log 
at the other. Many of the little ones have 
to be helped up on them, where they are in 
peril of life and limb from a fall. Here they 
are obliged to sit, day after day and week 
after week, between heaven and earth, "and 
in a frame of mind unfit for either place," with- 
out anything to support either their backs or 
their feet. Those who would realize what 
distress this occasions, let them try sitting only 
one half hour on a table or sideboard, with 
back and feet unsupported, and see what suf- 
fering ensues. 

Another writes thus : " Sitting with the legs 
hanging over the edge of the seat presses 
the veins (which lie near the surface, and carry 
the blood to the heart), and thus retard its re- 
turn, while the arteries, being deeper, carry the 
blood with its full force from the heart. Thus 
the veins become distended, numbness and 
pain follow, and sometimes permanent weak- 
ness is the result. Where children sit a long 
time without any support to their backs, the 
muscles that hold up the body become weary 
and weak, for no muscle can be too long con- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 43 

tracted without weakening it. In schools thus 
badly furnished, it will be seen that the chil- 
dren prefer the northern blasts out of doors to 
the sufferings they endure within, and come in 
unwillingly, with chilled bodies and checked 
perspiration. In some cases, parents provide 
comfortable chairs for their children, and then 
it is seen, that such stay but a short time out 
of doors, while those seated on such comfort- 
less benches stay as long as they can. This 
shows one predisposing cause of the curvature 
of the spine, and distortion of the body and 
limbs. Is it any wonder that so many of our 
youth have round shoulders, and a stooping 
of the body through life ? 

What would be said of a farmer who made 
his boy hold a plough as high as his head, or 
a joiner who made his apprentice plane a 
board on a bench as high as his shoulders? 
And yet they expect teachers to make their 
children study, read and write with just such 
improper accommodations. 

Sufferings of Little Children for Want of Pure 
Air. 
To understand this subject properly, it must 



44 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

be borne in mind, that the body is so construct- 
ed as to inhale at every breath about a pin-t of 
air. The air is composed of 79 parts nitrogen 
and 21 parts oxygen. When it is drawn into 
the lungs, the oxygen is absorbed by the blood, 
and what we exhale is the nitrogen, mixed with 
the carbonic acid, formed in the lungs by the 
union of the oxygen of the air with the carbon 
of the blood. Now, neither carbonic acid, or 
nitrogen can support life. Take the oxygen 
from the air, and then breathe it, and instant 
death ensues. So, put any animal into car- 
bonic acid alone, and it dies instantly. Thus, 
every breath of every human being uses up 
the oxygen in one pint of air, and returns it 
with only nitrogen and carbonic acid. Let a 
schoolroom, containing 18,000 gallons of air 
and twenty scholars, be made perfectly air- 
tight, and in twenty minutes they would all be 
corpses. The horrible sufferings produced by 
this process, were once w^itnessed in Calcutta, 
where 146 men were driven into a room 18 
feet square, with only one small window^ and 
kept there from eight at night till six next 
morning. Before midnight they all became 
frantic with agony, fought for the window^ 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 45 

choaked each other to death, screamed to the 
soldiers to shoot them, and thus end their mis- 
ery ; and in the morning only 26 were alive, 
and these in a putrid fever ! Lessening the 
amount of oxygen in the air by breathing, pro- 
duces languor, sleepiness, nausea, headache, 
flushed face, and sometimes palsy and apo- 
plexy. 

On this subject, the superintendents of the 
New- York schools make these statements : 

" Confinement in some of our schoolrooms 
is manslaughter. Our children, shut up in 
these hot holes, made so by their own breaths, 
by perspiration, and by a close, overheated 
stove, lay the foundation for diseases which 
show no gain except to the physician, and 
which, in after-life, no riding on horseback, or 
journeys by sea or land, or southern residence 
can cui^." 

Another states, that the uncomfortable con- 
dition of the schoolhouses, in his county, is such 
as to cause much suffering, both mental and 
bodily, to the children doomed to inhabit their 
gloomy walls and breathe the tainted air. 

Another writes of the schoolhouses in his 
district, that they are usually low, and in cold 



4j6 * AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

. weather so overheated as to be hotbeds of dis- 
ease, the close atmosphere being actually dan- 
gerous. One teacher, in one instance, was struck 
with palsy from the effects of confinement in 
such a poisonous atmosphere. At a public meet- 
ing, one citizen stated it as his conviction, that 
one of his children died from disease engen- 
dered by breathing the pestilential atmosphere 
of the schoolroom. Instances are numerous 
where the children come home dull, listless, 
and with severe colds and coughs. The teach- 
er, in such situations, often loses ambition, en- 
ergy, and health, and closes school pale and 
emaciated, perhaps to sink to an early grave, 
a victim of the poisonous air in which, for day 
after day, he has been confined. 

Sufferings of Little Children from Cold, Heat, 
y and Filth, 

One superintendent says, "Could parents 
witness, as I have, the suflfe rings of their chil- 
dren from cold, I am sure no other appeal 
would be needed. Some of those buildings, I 
am confident, would be considered by a syste- 
matic farmer, who regarded the comfort of his 
stock, as an unfit shelter for his Berkshires." 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 47 

Another states, that in some cases the 
schoolhouses are small and overheated. Then 
the teacher throws open the door, and a cur- 
rent of cold air pours on to the children. The 
reeking perspiration is suddenly stopped, and 
" a cold" is the result, which is often the pre- 
cursor of fevers and consumption. When no 
such results follow, the parents say, " It is only 
a cold;" when diseases and death follow, it is 
called a dispensation of Providence ! A phy- 
sician of extensive practice stated to this su- 
perintendent, that a large part of his con- 
sumptive cases originated from colds taken at 
school. 

Another describes one of the schoolhouses 
in his county as too small, too low, the seats 
too high, half the plastering fallen off and piled 
in one corner, and the house warmed by a 
cook-stove unfit for use. Six sevenths of the 
panes of glass were gone, and two windows 
boarded up. Going to attend the annual 
school meeting at this house, he met two citi- 
zens coming with a candle and firebrands, and 
picking up sticks along the road for a fire, 
because there was no w^ood provided at the 
schoolhouse. 



48 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

Another thus describes some of the school- 
houses in his county. It is very common to 
see cracked and broken stoves, the door with- 
out hinges or latch, and a rusty pipe of vari- 
ous sizes. Green wood, and that which is old 
and partially decayed, either drenched with 
rain, or covered with snow, is much more 
frequently used than sound, seasoned wood. 
Thus it is difficult to kindle a fire, and the 
room is filled with smoke much of the time, 
especially in stormy weather. Sometimes the 
school is interrupted two or three times a day 
to fasten up the stovepipe. 

The extent of these evils may be perceived 
from the report, which says of one county 
about as well supplied as any, out of eighty-^ 
seven districts only twenty schoolhouses have 
provided means for keeping their wood dry. 

Another says, "At the commencement of 
the winter term of our schools, some one of 
the trustees generally furnishes a load of green 
wood, perhaps his own proportion. The teacher 
proceeds till this is exhausted, and he is com- 
pelled to notify his patrons of the entire desti- 
tution of wood. After meeting his school, and 
shivering over expiring embers till the hope 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 49 

of a supply is exhausted, he dismisses the 
school for one, two, or three days, and some- 
times for a week, before any inhabitant finds 
time to get another load of green wood. With 
such wood it is impossible to keep the school- 
room at a proper temperature. The scholars, 
at first, crowd around the stove, suflfering ex- 
tremely with cold, and then are driven as far 
off as they can get, in a high state of perspira- 
tion, and almost suffocated with heat. Our 
schools in this country suflfer much from such 
methods of procuring fuel. The time which 
is lost in school hours by the use of green 
wood, I think will include near one fourth of the 
whole time." 

Another says, " The teacher found abundant 
employment in stuffing the old stove with 
green birch and elm, cut as occasion required 
by the teacher and the boys. A continual 
coughing was kept up by nearly seven-eighths 
of the children, and the teacher apologised for 
want of order by saying, ' they could not 
usually do much in stormy weather till after- 
noon, when the fire would get a going.' On 
this occasion, one trustee and two of the in- 
habitants of the district were present an hour, 
E 



50 AMERICA2C &< O/i.CN ! 

when, getting froze-'i o'Aj iaej asked to be ex- 
cused, and left the I'hi'dren to suffer, saying, 
*We did not thWf. our house was so uncom- 
fortable. Sonrj^.^ g/dss must be got, and a load 
of dry wood/" Some of the statements of 
these superirj'.aidents, as to the order and neat- 
ness of their schoolhouses, are no less lament- 
able. One remarks, that " some of them, as 
to neatness, resemble the domicil for swine." 
Another describes one school house as " hav- 
ing the clapboards torn off, the door just I'eady 
to fall, an aperture in the roof where the chim- 
ney once was, slabs with a pair of clubs at each 
end for legs, and so high no child could touch 
foot to the floor, rickety desks falling to ruin, 
the plaster torn off, and the whole covered 
with dirt, and as filthy as the street itself." 
But this is not all. " This house is situated in 
a district of wealthy farmers." 

Another says, " It is a startling truth, that very 
many of our schoolhouses furnish no private 
retreat whatever for teacher or scholar. Thus 
is one side of the schoolhouse, and, in some 
instances, the doorstep, rendered a scene more 
disgusting than the filth of a pig-sty." 

Another says, " Schoolhouses, generally, 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 51 

are not. furnished with suitable conveniences 
for disposing the outer garments of the children, 
their dinner-baskets, and other articles. Some- 
times there are a few nails in an outer entry 
where clothes and dinners may be put, but in 
such cases the door is left open for rain and 
snow to beat in ; the scholars, in their haste to 
get their own clothes, pull down many more, 
which are trampled on. Moreover, the din- 
ners are often frozen, or eaten by dogs, and 
sometimes even by hogs. 

Sufferings of Little Children from Cruel and 
Improper Punishments. 

In reporting on this subject, the county su- 
perintendents mention these as inflictions not 
uncommon. Standing on one foot for a long 
time ; " sitting on nothing," that is, obliging the 
child to hold himself in a sitting posture with- 
out any support ; holding out the arm hori- 
zontally with a weight on it ; tying a finger so 
high as to oblige the child to stand on tiptoe ; 
holding the head downward, sometimes caus- 
ing dangerous hemorrhages from the nose, or 
injuring the brain ; frightening little children 
by threats. Many cases are declared to 



52 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

have occurred in which permanent injuries 
have been inflicted by thus straining the mus- 
cles, and torturing the body and mind of httle 
children. 

The following is a description of a scene 
witnessed at school by one of the county super- 
intendents in his periodical visitation : two 
girls, about twelve years of age, were out of 
order, and the teacher, without any warning, 
sprang across the room and severely flogged 
both. A little boy, tired of sitting on his hard 
seat, leaned over on his elbow ; he was caught 
by the head, dragged over the desk to the 
floor, and ordered to study. A little girl of 
seven, after one or two admonitions to "tend 
her book," v^^as caught by the arm, dragged 
on to the floor, rudely shaken, cuffed on both 
sides of her head, and then whipped. " I look- 
ed around," says the superintendent, " to learn 
the effect upon the other scholars. I saw no 
happy faces. There seemed to settle upon the 
countenances of nearly all, a cloud of gloom 
and terror. The school closed soon after, and 
the teacher remarked to me, that he did not 
punish near as much now as he formerly 
didr 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 53 

Moral Injuries inflicted on Children at School. 

One teacher writes thus : " Where the plas- 
tering remains, it is covered with coal marks, 
and numerous holes are cut through the wri- 
ting desks, while vulgarities and obscenities 
are not only written, but deeply cut in the 
desks and doors." Of another house he says, 
" Within and without are manifest evidences 
of a polluted imagination. Several lewd rep- 
resentations are deep cut in the clapboards in 
front of the house, in the entry, and even on 
the girls' desks, so as to be constantly before 
their eyes." " These things," he adds, " are 
but specimens selected from scores." 

Another writes thus : " I have alluded to the 
representations of vulgarity and obscenity that 
meet the eye in every direction. I am con- 
strained to add that, during intermissions, ' cer- 
tain lewd fellows of the baser sort' sometimes 
lecture boys and girls, large and small, illus- 
trating their subject by these vile delineations. 
Many of our schoolhouses are nurseries of 
disorder, vulgarity, profanity, and obscenity — 
nay, more, in some cases, they are the very 
hothouses of hcentiousness." 
E 2 



54 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

One single statement, made up from these 
reports of the county superintendents, and pre- 
sented by the head superintendent in his report, 
speaks vokimes on the neglect of modesty, de- 
J cency, neatness, and purity. In the whole 
state there are six thousand schoolhouses des- 
titute of any kind of woodhouse or privy ; and 
of the whole number, only about one thousand 
have privies provided with separate accom- 
modations for children of different sexes. 

It appears, also, that though the schools and 
teachers are fast rising in character, and that 
many now are of uncommon excellence, yet 
that many of the teachers are notoriously de- 
praved, while intellectual training, in the ma- 
jority of cases, is deplorably low, and the mor- 
al training still more defective. 

One superintendent remarks, " Gloomy, in- 
deed, are the impressions made by our school- 
houses. The lessons of immorality and inde- 
cency often taught there would cause a shud- 
der to thrill every sensitive mind." Another 
says, " There are, I regret to say, many teach- 
ers whose morals, manners, and daily exam- 
ple wholly unfit them for their duties." An- 
other says, " In some instances, moral qualifi- 



'will you save your country? 55 

cations have been wholly disregarded, and 
teachers notoriously intemperate employed." 
Says another, " I have found a number whose 
language was low, obscene, and sensual, still 
employed in teaching." 

Says another, " If the tastes, associations, 
and moral sentiments of the teacher lack ele- 
vation and dignity, what literary progress will 
atone for examples so pernicious ? And yet 
such are the moral influences shed about them 
by many licensed to teach." 

After presenting all these shocking details, 
the chief superintendent, in 1844, thus remarks: 

*" No subject connected with elementary in- 
struction affords a source for such mortifying 
and humihating reflection as that of the con- 
dition of a large portion of the schoolhouses as 
presented in the above enumeration. Only one 
third of the whole number visited were found 
in good repair ; another third in only comfort- 
able condition ; while three thousand three hun- 
dred and nineteen were unfit for the reception 
of man or beast. Seven thousand were found 
destitute of any playground, nearly six thousand 
destitute of convenient seats and desks, nearly 
eight thousand destitute of any proper facilities 



v/ 



|»6 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

for ventilation, and upward of six thousand des- 
titute of a privy of any sort. And it is in these 
miserable abodes of filth and dirt, deprived of 
wholesome air, or exposed to the assaults of 
the elements, with no facilities for exercise or 
relaxation, with no conveniences for prosecu- 
ting their studies, crowded together on bench- 
es not admitting of a moment's rest, and de- 
barred the possibility of yielding to the ordi- 
nary calls of nature without violent inroads 
upon modesty and shame, that upward of 
two hundred thousand children of this state 
are compelled to spend an average period of 
eight months each year of their pupilage. Here 
the first lessons of human life, the incipient 
principles of morality, and the rules of social 
intercourse are to be impressed on the plastic 
mind. The boy is here to receive the model 
of his permanent character, and imbibe the el- 
ements of his future career. Here the instinct- 
ive dehcacy of the young female, one of the 
characteristic ornaments of her sex, is to be 
expanded into maturity by precept and exam- 
ple. Such are the temples of science, such 
the ministers under whose care susceptible 
childhood is to receive its earliest impressions. 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 57 

Great God ! shall man dare to charge to thy 
dispensations the vices, the crimes, the sick- 
ness, the sorrows, the miseries, and the brevi- 
ty of human life, who sends his httle children 
to a pesthouse, fraught with the deadly ma- 
laria of both moral and physical disease ? In- 
stead of impious murmurs, let him lay his hand 
on his mouth, and his mouth in the dust, and 
cry " Unclean !" 

Let it not be imagined that this picture is 
peculiar to New-York. The superintendents 
of the common schools in Ohio, and even in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, have reported 
similar evils as existing, to a greater or less 
extent, in the schools in their respective states ; 
and if such things exist in the states where 
most has been done for education, what can 
be hoped for the neglected and abused little 
ones where even less is done by law for their 
comfort and improvement 1 In view of such 
utter destitution of schools in the greater part 
of our country, and of the sufferings and neg- 
lect endured by little children in other por- 
tions, the inquiry must be earnestly pressed^ 
"What can be the reason of this deplorable 
state of things ?" 



58 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

The grand reason is, the selfish apathy of the 
educated classes, and the stupid apathy of those 
who are too ignorant to appreciate an educa- 
tion for their children. In those states where 
no school system is established by law, the in- 
telligent and wealthy content themselves with 
securing a good education for their own chil- 
dren, and care nothing for the rest. When any 
project, therefore, is presented for obtaining 
a good school system, the rich and intelligent 
do not wish to be taxed for the children of 
others, and the rest do not care whether their 
children are educated cr not, or else are too 
poor to pay the expense. 

In those states where a school system is 
established, parents of intelligence and mor- 
al worth, seeing the neglected state of the 
common school, withdraw their children to 
private schools. And feeling no interest in 
schools which they do not patronise, they pass 
them with utter neglect. And thus, neither 
rich, nor poor care enough to be willing to be 
taxed for their elevation and improvement. 

Thus, too, it has come to pass, that while 
every intelligent man in the Union is reading, 
and hearing, and saying, every day of his life, 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 59 

that unless our children are trained to virtue and 
intelligence, the nation is ruined, yet there is 
nothing else for w^hich so little interest is felt, or 
so httle done. Look, novv^,*to that great body of 
intelligent and benevolent persons, vs^ho are in- 
teresting themselves for patriotic and religious 
enterprises. We see them sustaining great or- 
ganizations, and supporting men to devote their 
whole time to promote these several enterprises, 
which draw thousands and hundreds of thou- 
sands from the public for their support. There 
is one organization, to send missionaries to the 
heathen and to educate heathen children, with 
its six or eight paid officers, devoting their 
whole time to the object. Then there is an- 
other to furnish the Bible, and another to dis- 
tribute tracts, and another to educate young 
men to become ministers, and another to send 
out home missionaries, and another to sustain 
Western colleges, and another to promote tem- 
perance, and another to promote the observ- 
ance of the Sabbath. Then we have an as- 
sociation to take care of sailors, and another 
to promote the comfort and improvement of 
convicts in prisons and penitentiaries, and an- 
other to relieve and ransom the slave, and an- 



60 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

other to colonize the free coloured race. All 
these objects are promoted by having men sus- 
tained by voluntary contributions, who spend 
their whole time in urging the claims of these 
various objects on the public mind, while al- 
most all have a regular periodical to advocate 
their cause. But our two millions of little chil- 
dren, who are growing up in heathenish dark- 
ness, enchained in ignorance, and in many ca- 
ses, where the cold law professes to provide 
for them, enduring distress of body and mind 
even greater than is inflicted on criminals in 
our prisons, where is the benevolent associa- 
tion for their relief? where is there a period- 
ical supported by the charitable to tell the tale 
of their wrongs ? where is there a single man 
sustained by Christian benevolence to operate 
for their relief? 

Let it not be claimed that Sunday-schools 
meet this emergency. A Sunday-school can- 
not, in its one or two short hours, educate a 
■ child, or undo all the fatal influences of six 
days of idle vagrancy, with their pernicious 
lessons of vice and sin. Besides, the Sabbath- 
school is of little avail, except where there is 
a large class of intelligent and benevolent per- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 61 

sons to labour, and such are thinly sprinkled 
in those portions of the land where no schools 
exist. 

The vast proportion of neglected children 
in our land are never reached, even by the 
feeble influence of the Sunday-school. 

And this fatal neglect cannot be palliated 
by the plea, that the means employed to sus- 
tain other objects cannot be directed to this 
cause. Why cannot the press be employed 
for popular education as efficiently as for the 
promotion of temperance, or the support of the 
Sabbath ? Why cannot men of talents be 
supported to write and to labour for this cause 
as well as for any other? The only thing 
that can save us is, to arouse this people from 
the fatal apathy which is luring them to de- 
struction. Ministers must preach, agents must 
lecture, conventions must be called, discussions 
must be urged, tracts miust be written and cir- 
culated, the political press must be enlisted, 
and every possible mode of arousing public 
attention must be adopted. It must be shown 
that teachers are needed as much as ministers, 
that teachers' institutions are as important as 
colleges, that it is as necessary to educate and 
F 



62 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

send forth " poor and pious young women" to 
teach, as it is " poor and pious young men" to 
preach. And when the same influence and 
eflforts are directed to educate our two millions 
of American children, as are now directed to 
establishing missions among the heathen, our 
country may escape the yawning abyss now 
gaping to destroy. 

The American people are sanguine and 
hasty, careless of peril, and thoughtless of 
risk, but, when brought by danger to reflec- 
tion, they have first-rate common sense, sur- 
passing energy, and endless resources. And 
if they can but be convinced of their danger 
in season, all is safe ; but the work to be done 
is prodigious, the time is short, and the ques- 
tion all turns on whether the work will be 
undertaken soon enough, and with sufficient 
energy. 

Look, then, at the work to be done. Two 
millions of destitute children to be supplied with 
schools! To meet this demand, sixty thou- 
sand teachers and fifty thousand school houses 
are required. Or, if we can aflJbrd to leave 
half of them to grow up in ignorance, and aim 
only to educate the other half, thirty thou- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 63 

sand teachers and twenty-five thousand school- 
houses must be provided, and that, too, within 
twelve years. The census calculates the chil- 
dren between four and sixteen, and in twelve 
years most of these children will be beyond the 
reach of school instruction, while other mill- 
ions, treading on their heels, will demand still 
greater supplies. Sixty thousand teachers now 
needed for present w^ants, and thousands to be 
added every year for the increase of popula- 
tion ! 

Where are we to raise such an army of 
teachers ? Not from the sex which finds it so 
much more honourable, easy, and lucrative to 
enter the many roads to wealth and honour 
open in this land. But a few will turn from 
these, to the humble, unhonoured toils of the 
schoolroom and its penurious reward. 

It is woman who is to come in at this emer- 
gency, and meet the demand ; woman, whom 
experience and testimony has shown to be the 
best, as well as the cheapest guardian and 
teacher of childhood, in the school as well as 
the nursery. Already, in those parts of our 
country where education is most prosperous, 
the larger part of the teachers of common 



64 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

schools are women. In Massachusetts, three 
out of five of all the teachers are women. In 
the State of New- York and in Philadelphia 
similar results are seen. 

Women, then, are to be educated for teach- 
ers, and sent to the destitute children of this 
nation by hundreds and by thousands. This is 
the way in which a profession is to be created 
for woman — a profession as honourable and 
as lucrative for her as the legal, medical, and 
theological are for men. This is the way in 
which thousands of intelligent and respectable 
women, who toil for a pittance scarcely suffi- 
cient to sustain life, are to be relieved and ele- 
vated. This is the way, and the only way, in 
which our nation can be saved from impend- 
ing perils. Though we are now in such a 
condition that many have given over our case 
in despair, as too far gone for remedy — though 
the peril is immense, and the work to be done 
enormous, yet it is in the power of American 
women to save their country. There is be- 
nevolence enough, there are means enough 
at their command. All that is needed is a 
knowledge of the danger, and a faithful use 
of the means within their reach. 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 65 

And who else, in such an emergency as 
this, can so appropriately be invoked to aid? 
It is woman who is the natural and appropri- 
ate guardian of childhood. It is woman who 
has those tender sympathies which can most 
readily feel for the wants and sufferings of the 
young. It is woman, who is especially inter- 
ested in all efforts which tend to elevate and 
dignify her own sex. It is woman, too, who 
has that conscientiousness and religious devo- 
tion, which, in any worthy cause, are the surest 
pledges of success. 

And it is the pride and honour of our coun- 
try, that woman holds a commanding influ- 
ence in the domestic and social circle, which 
is accorded to the sex in no other nation, and 
such as will make her wishes and efforts, if 
united for a benevolent and patriotic object, 
almost omnipotent. 

To you, then, American women, are brought 
these two millions of suffering and destitute chil- 
dren ; these " despised little ones," of v/hom is 
written, "their angels do always behold the 
face of our Father in heaven ;" who are loved 
and cared for by the good Shepherd above, so 
that it were better for any of us, that we were 
F2 



66 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

thrown with a millstone about our necks into 
the sea, than that, through our guilty neglect, 
even one of these little ones should perish. 

To you, my countrywomen, these little chil- 
dren call, with voices soft as the young ravens' 
cry, yet multitudinous as the murmuring ocean 
waves. To you they complain of the filth, 
and the weariness, and the aching muscles, 
and the throbbing head, and the tortured eyes. 
To you they lament the degrading scenes and 
fatal influences, that wither all that is pure, and 
sweet, and lovely in childhood and youth. 
Of you they ask relief from suffering, and all 
those blessed ministries that will lead their 
young feet to usefulness and happiness on 
earth, and to glory, honour, and immortality 
on high. Ah, surely their supplications will 
be heard, and speedy relief will be found ! 

How, then, can American women act for 
these children, and thus for the salvation of 
their country, in an emergency like this 1 

Before answering this question, it is needful 
to consider that the education demanded for 
the American people is not merely to be 
taught to read and write. In communities 
where it is the universal fashion to read, and 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 67 

where books and papers are multitudinous as 
the flakes of heaven, it might, perhaps, suffice 
to teach a child to read, so far as intellect is 
concerned. But if the tastes and principles 
are not formed aright, the probability is, that 
blank ignorance would be better than the poi- 
sonous food, which a mind, thus sent forth to 
seek its own supplies, would inevitably select. 
But in those sections of our country that are 
most deficient in schools, there are neither 
books, nor the desire, or the taste for reading 
them. And among those who are taught to 
read, thousands go from the portals of knowl- 
edge to daily toil, or to vicious indulgences, 
leaving the mind as empty and stupid as if no 
such ability were gained. And how many 
there are, who have sharpened their faculties 
only as edged tools for greater mischief! No ; 
the American people are to be educated for 
their high duties. The children who, ere long, 
are to decide whether we shall have tariff* or 
no tariff*, bank or no bank, slavery or no sla- 
very, naturalization laws or no such laws, 
must be trained so that they cannot be duped 
and excited by demagogues, and thus led on 
to the ruin that overwhelmed the people of 



68 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

France. They must be trained to read, and think, 
and decide intelligently on all matters where 
they are to act as legislators, judges, jury, and 
executive. The children who, ere long, are to 
be thrown into the heats and passion of politi- 
cal strife and sectional jealousy, must be train- 
ed to rule their passions, and to control them- 
selves by reason, religion, and law. The 
young daughters of this nation, too, must be 
trained to become the educators of all the fu- 
ture statesmen, legislators, judges, jCiries, and 
magistrates of this land. For to them are to 
be committed the minds and habits of every 
future child, at the time when every impres- 
sion is indelible, and every influence eflicient. 
What, then, can American women do in for- 
warding an enterprise so vast and so impor- 
tant? 

In the first place, there is no woman in any 
station, who has not work cut out to her hand. 
Wherever there is a single ignorant child^ 
there is one of the future rulers or educators 
of this nation ; there is one immortal being, 
who, if neglected, will become an engine of 
mischief to our country, and at last sink to 
eternal wo ; or, if trained aright, will prove 



I 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 69 

a blessing to our nation, and an angel of light 
in heaven. And no v^^oman is free from guilt, 
or free from the terrific responsibilities of the 
perils impending over her country, till she has 
done all in her power to secure a proper edu- 
cation to all the young minds within the reach 
of her influence. 

Is it asked, What then ; would you require 
every woman to turn teacher and keep school? 
No ; but every woman is bound to bring this 
into the list of her duties, and, as one of her 
most imperious duties, to do all in her power 
to secure a proper education to the American 
children now coming upon the stage. 

Every woman has various duties pressing 
upon her attention. It is right for her, it is 
her duty, to cultivate her own mind by read- 
ing and study, not merely for her own grati- 
fication or credit, but with the great end in 
view of employing her knowledge and ener' 
gies for the good of others. It is right, and a 
duty for a woman to attend to domestic af- 
fairs ; but, except in cases of emergency, it is 
not right to devote all her time to this alone. 
It is a duty for her to attend to religious ef- 
forts and ordinances ; but it is not right for her 



70 AMEEICAN WOMEN ! 

to give dl her time to these alone. It is right for 
her to devote some time to social enjoyments, 
some time to the elegancies and ornaments of 
taste, some time to the adornment of person 
and residence, and some time to the relaxation 
of mere amusement. In many cases, these 
last are as much duties as the more weighty 
pursuits of life. 

But this great maxim is ever to be borne in 
mind, The most important things first in atten- 
tion. It is the due proportion of time and at- 
tention that decides the rectitude of all useful 
or innocent pursuits. And a woman is bound 
so to divide her time, as to give some portion 
of it to each of her several duties, so that 
no one shall be entirely crowded out ; and so, 
also, to apportion her attention, that each shall 
be regarded according to its relative value. 

In this view of the subject, what, except 
her own immortal interest, can an American 
woman place, as demanding more serious at- 
tention and more earnest efforts, than an at- 
tempt to use her time and influence to avert 
the dangers now impending over her country, 
her kindred, and herself? Is there any orna- 
mental design, any gratification of taste or ap- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 71 

petite, any merely temporal good, that can at 
all be placed in comparison with this great 
concern? Is it, then, assuming too much to 
claim that every American woman is bound 
to give, not only some time, but more time to 
this enterprise than she gives to any social en- 
joyment, any personal or domestic decoration, 
or any species of amusement ? Is it not so ? 
Is it right for a conscientious woman, when 
all that is dear and sacred is in such peril — - 
when she has means, time, or influence which 
will aid in saving her country, her friends, and 
herself from such dangers — is it right to give 
to this effort less attention and time than is de- 
voted to visiting, or to entertaining company, 
or to the adornment of her person or her house ? 
Judge ye, as ye will give account for these 
things to the Judge of quick and dead. 

What, then, are the ways in which an edu- 
cated woman can employ the talents commit- 
ted to her for the salvation of her country? 

Many may be pointed out, some one of 
which can be adopted by every woman in 
this nation. 

Some, who are mothers, can superintend 
the education of their children, and, while 



72 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

doing it, can seek in their own vicinity or- 
phans, or children of peculiar promise, and 
train them with their own children to become 
teachers of others. 

Some, who are sisters, can superintend the 
education of younger brothers and sisters, and 
add to this class others of humbler means, 
whom they may thus prepare for missionary 
teachers in some of the destitute villages of 
our land. 

Some, who are just returned from school, 
with all their knowledge fresh, and all their 
powers in active play, may collect a class 
around them in the vicinity of their homes, 
and impart the discipline of mind and treas- 
ures of knowledge given them by God, not to 
be laid up as in a napkin, but to be employed 
for the good of others. Thus they will be 
raising up, not only useful teachers, but valu- 
able friends for the exigencies of future hfe. 

Oh, how much happier, and more respecta- 
ble, and more lovely, in such benevolent toils, 
than in the shopping, dressing, calling, gossip- 
ing round pursued by a large portion of the 
daughters of wealth ! 

Some, on completing their education, can 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 73 

interest themselves in the common schools in 
their vicinity, seeking the friendship of the 
teacher, and then contributing their time and 
labour to raise the school to higher intellectual 
and moral excellence. 

Some, who have a missionary spirit, may 
go forth to the destitute portions of our land, 
and collect the future sovereigns and educa- 
tors of this nation, and train them for their 
duties. 

Some, who have wealth at their command, 
understanding that much is required from 
them to whom much is given — that wealth is 
bestowed^ not for selfish enjoyment, but for the 
good of others — that education is conferred, 
not as the means of selfish distinction and ad- 
vantage, but as the instrument for benefiting 
mankind — such may devote time, and service, 
and wealth to this noble enterprise. Such 
may aid in founding and superintending insti- 
tutions for the education and location of female 
teachers, thus originating permanent fountains 
of knowledge and influence, that long shall 
send forth bounteous waters in all portions of 
our land. 

Some, who cannot enter personally into 
G 



74 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

such labours, may aid in furnishing means to 
send forth others into the field. There are 
hundreds and thousands of benevolent wom- 
en in the land, who would rejoice to spend 
and be spent in this service, but who have nei- 
ther the opportunity to qualify themselves, nor 
the assistance necessary in finding the proper 
location when prepared. Why is it not time 
to turn some of the charity of woman, which 
so long has clothed and educated young men 
for their benevolent ministries, to aiding their 
own sex in as important and more neglected 
service ? 

Some can interest themselves in the schools 
in their vicinity, and aid the teacher by sym- 
pathy, counsel, and lending suitable books. A 
woman who is well informed herself, may, in 
this way, do much to save both the body and 
minds of children from great evils. On such 
an errand, in some cases, she will find young 
children pent up in a tight room, heated by a 
close stove, poisoning the air with their breaths, 
without the least relief from the process of 
ventilation, so easily secured by a trap-door 
in the upper wall. Thus it is, that many chil- 
dren engender weak stomachs, headaches, fee- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 75 

ble constitutions, and sometimes deformity and 
death. In other cases, she may rescue some 
little sufferers from the torture of supporting 
the body on high and hard benches, without 
any aid to the muscles from a support to the 
back. Thus it is that children sometimes are 
rendered feeble and distorted, especially those 
of delicate conformation. In other cases, she 
may ascertain, by her own inspection, the 
shameful neglect of cleanliness, comfort, mod- 
esty, and decency, too often to be found in our 
common schools. Nowhere else is the super- 
vision of woman so much demanded. The 
preceding details of the situation of our com- 
mon schools in these respects, found in reports 
made by the state officers of education in New- 
York, where great efforts have been made to 
remove such evils, are painful indications of 
the shocking abuses which are to be remedied. 
The poor in our almshouses, the criminals in 
our prisons, even the cattle in our stables, have 
more attention paid to their comfort than is 
given to thousands and thousands of the little 
children of our country. In other cases, she 
can inquire into the course of study, and the 
modes of giving moral and religious instruc- 



76 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

tion, and into the character of the books used 
in school, and if any improvement or altera- 
tion is needed, by seeking the confidence and 
friendship of the teacher, and lending her 
books to read on the subject, or by influencing 
trustees and those who direct the school, she 
may remedy evils and secure improvement. 

In some portions of the country where ed- 
ucation is most prosperous, the mothers of a 
district have formed an association for the im- 
provement of the school which their children 
attend. This is usually brought about by the 
teacher of the school. These mothers meet 
once a month, to consult, or to read books, or 
to visit the school, and their contributions of 
money are used to increase the school appa- 
ratus, or to buy the books needed by the teach- 
er or themselves for this object. 

Some can interest themselves for the do- 
mestics of their family, to whom the health, 
character, and happiness of little children is 
so extensively intrusted. By kind expressions 
of interest, by conversing with them on their 
pursuits and duties, by lending useful books 
adapted to their capacities, by reading to them, 
by inducing them to secure suitable religious 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 77 

pririleges, and by using all practicable means 
to impart knowledge and moral principle, much 
may be done for this greatly neglected class, 
who not only have so much influence over the 
children of others, but are most of them, ere 
long, to rear children of their own. In no way 
can a mother so surely receive her reward as 
in faithful and benevolent efforts for her do- 
mestics. 

Some can employ tneir time and means in 
circulating books, papers, and tracts, which 
shall enlighten the people, and awaken them to 
their duties and dangers. Some can use their 
personal influence over fathers, sons, husbands, 
brothers, and friends, presenting this subject to 
their attention, pointing out articles for them 
to read, and urging any measures that may 
tend to advance this cause. Some may ap- 
proach their clergyman, and if he needs any 
information, or any quickening on the subject, 
furnish the books, and add entreaties to secure 
his powerful influence both in private and in 
the pulpit. 

Some can employ the pen in writing to 
arouse public interest, and their influence in 
getting articles on this subject into newspa- 
G2 



78 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

pers. Such works as the periodicals on Ed- 
ucation, published in Boston and Albany, 
Stowe's and Mann's Reports on the Systems 
of Education in Europe, and the volume call- 
ed the School and Schoolmaster, will furnish 
materials for such articles. 

Some, who have but little time at command, 
can render very essential service by an occa- 
sional visit to the schools in their vicinity, es- 
pecially in seasons of examination ; thus en- 
couraging both teachers and pupils by the con- 
viction that their labours are known and appre- 
ciated, and that the community around are in- 
terested in their success. If the influential la- 
dies in any place would go but once a year to 
the schools in their vicinity, to inquire for their 
comfort and prosperity, it would give a won- 
derful impulse to the cause of education. The 
torpid indifference of the influential classes to 
the education of the young, except where their 
own families are concerned, is the grand cause 
•of all the dangers that threaten us. 

There are many who feel that any useful 
object of common interest can be more suc- 
cessfully achieved hy association than by in- 
^dividual influence. Such are accustomed to 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 79 

form societies, or associations, with officers 
and committees. In cases where this mode 
of operating is common and popular, a La- 
dies' School Association might be formed, who 
might act somewhat in this manner : 

A meeting might be called, of all ladies in 
the place, disposed to lend their influence to 
f)romote the proper education of American chil- 
dren, where some gentlemen, familiar with the 
subject, might address them. Committees 
niight then be appointed to obtain information 
on these questions. Are all the children in 
this vicinity so provided with schools and 
schoolbooks that they are gaining a proper ed- 
ucation t Do the Sunday-schools avail to se- 
cure a proper education to the children who 
go to no other? Is the Bible used, or any 
moral or religious instruction given in the 
schools? Where schools are provided, what 
is the condition of the schoolhouse, the seats 
and desks, the mode of heating and ventila- 
ting, the order and neatness of the premises, 
and what are the outdoor accommodations ? 

When the committees have obtained the in- 
formation on these points, another meeting can 
be called to hear their reports, and to devise 



80 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

means for remedying any evils or deficiencies 
that may have been discovered. 

In proceeding in this way, it will be indis- 
pensable to seek the good- will and co-opera- 
tion of the teachers whose schools are exam- 
ined ; and as these measures would all tend to 
promote their comfort and usefulness, a mod- 
erate degree of discretion and kindness would 
secure their ready co-operation. 

Those who are so infirm, or so embarrassed 
in other ways, that they cannot engage in any 
one of the measures suggested above, can at 
least speak to those around them, and endeav- 
our to influence them to engage in this work. 

Those who have access to men of wealth 
and influence, those who can approach the 
minds that are forming comprehensive plans, 
and enlisting thousands to promote them, may, 
in many cases, most efficiently aid this cause 
by urging such inquiries as these. 

Why is it that no plans are formed to train 
up our own millions of destitute children? 
Why is no organization effected to educate 
and locate female teachers, when there are 
hundreds and thousands in our land, who have 
a truly missionary spirit, and are longing to be 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 81 

sent forth ? Why should so much money be 
collected for a nine year's course for young 
men, who are to go forth as preachers, and 
none be received for the education and loca- 
tion of young women, who, as teachers in des- 
titute villages, could, with only one or two 
year's education, do as much good as mis- 
sionary preachers ? 

If women are called upon to spend their 
time and money in clothing and educating 
young men, is it not proper and reasonable 
that the other sex should do something to aid 
young women who are longing to be sent forth 
to save the perishing children of our country ? 

Is it not required that children should be 
trained up in the way they should go 1 and 
ought there not to be benevolent organizations 
to secure this, as much as organizations to re- 
form and convert those who are vicious and 
irreligious, simply because they are not thus 
trained ? 

Is it not better to save children from being 
poisoned, than to pay phj^sicians for trying to 
cure them after they are contaminated, and, in 
many cases, beyond the reach of cure ? 

Is it not as important to send forth tracts to 



82 AMERICAN women! 

influence the people to educate their children 
virtuously and religiously, as it is to send forth 
tracts to convert and reform them after they 
have been trained up to vice and irreligion ? 

Is it not as important to teach our two mil- 
lions of destitute children to read, as it is to 
send forth tracts, and Bibles, and colporteurs to 
a population where three millions cannot read 
a line in Bible or tract ? 

Is it not as important to organize, in order to 
secure a good common-school education to our 
millions who cannot read, as it is to sustain 
and endow colleges for the few thousand youth 
who enjoy their advantages, and who have 
such disproportionate treasures lavished on 
their education ? 

If we neglect the democracy and provide 
only for the higher classes, shall we not eat the 
fruit of our own way ? The aristocracy of 
France took all the wealth and power for self- 
ish enjoyment, and when the democracy came 
into power, how awfully did they revenge 
themselves ! In this country, are not the rich 
and influential acting on the same selfish prin- 
ciple ? " And the people do perish for lack of 
knowledge !" Oh ! the horrors of that day 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 83 

when this neglected people shall visit their 
wrongs on those, who now are selfishly with- 
holding that light of knowledge which is the 
only means of our peace and salvation ! 

In attempting to influence others to engage 
in this work, appeals can be made to the 
generous and patriotic feelings of the young 
with great effect. Why cannot an enthusi- 
asm be created for educating children which 
shall equal that which has been created for 
preventing and curing intemperance ? Let 
the same amount of money be spent, and the 
same number of good and influential men at- 
tempt to do it> and it will he done. Let every 
woman, then, uige on this attempt. 

If a woman can do nothing else for this 
cause, she can at least pray for it ; and it is 
rarely the case that any person offers sincere 
and earnest prayer for any good object, without 
speedily finding something to do for that object. 

In attempting to enlist American women in 
the work of securing a proper education to 
the children of this nation, there is one topic 
worthy of special consideration. The great 
problem of the age on this subject is, how shall 
the moral and religious instruction of children 



84 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

be secured at school ? When we consider the 
vast multitudes of children who have no such 
training, either at home or anywhere else, 
this question becomes one of paramount in- 
terest ; for, unless virtuous and moral principles 
and habits are formed, education only adds 
new powers of mischief to those who are train- 
ed. The indifference of a large portion of the 
community to this subject, and the extreme 
sensitiveness of sectarian jealousy, interpose 
great obstacles ; but these may be mucii more 
readily overcome than many suppose. 

Professor Stowe, in his Report to the Legis- 
lature of Ohio on the Prussia.^ System of 
Schools, makes these remarks ^ 

" The universal success, also, and very bene- 
ficial results, with which che arts of drawing 
and designing, music, and also moy^al instruc- 
tion and the Bible, have been introduced into 
schools, was another fact peculiarly interesting 
to me. 

" I asked all the teachers with whom I con- 
versed whether they did not sometimes find 
children incapable of learning to draw and to 
sing. I have had but one reply, and that was, 
that they found the same diversity of natural 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 85 

talent in regard to these as in regard to read- 
ing, writing, and other branches of education ; 
but they had never seen a child capable of 
learning to read and write, who could not be 
taught to sing well and draw neatly ; and that, 
too, without taking any time which would in- 
terfere with, or which would not rather pro- 
mote progress in other studies. 

" In regard to the necessity of moral instruc- 
tion and the beneficial influence of the Bible in 
schools, the testimony was no less explicit and 
uniform. I inquired of all classes of teachers, 
and of men of every grade of religious faith ; 
instructers in common schools, high schools, 
and schools of art ; of professors in colleges, 
universities, and professional seminaries in cities 
and in the country ; in places where there was 
a uniformity of creed, and in places where 
there was a diversity of creeds ; I inquired of 
believers and unbelievers, of rationalists and 
enthusiasts, of Catholics and Protestants, and 
I never found but one reply : and that was, 
that to leave the moral faculty uninstructed 
was to leave the most important part of the 
human mind undeveloped, and to strip educa- 
tion of almost everything that makes it valua- 
H 



86 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

ble ; and that the Bible is the best book to put 
into the hands of children, to interest, to exer- 
cise, and to unfold both the intellectual and 
moral powers. Every teacher whom I con- 
sulted repelled with indignation the idea, that 
moral instruction is not proper for schools, and 
that the Bible cannot be introduced into com- 
mon schools without sectarian bias in teach- 
ing." 

While it is universally conceded by all intel- 
ligent persons, that there is no nation on earth, 
whose prosperity, and even existence, so much 
depends on the moral training of the mass of 
the people, there is no nation, where schools are 
established hy law, in which so little of it is done. 
It is mournful to reflect, that by far the larger 
part of our schools banish religious and moral 
training altogether, and confine their efforts en- 
tirely to the training of the intellect^ and a great 
part of them merely to that of the memory. 

It is supposed, by many, that the Sunday- 
school in our country, to a great degree, sup- 
plies the deficiencies of our schools in respect 
to moral and religious training. It is true that 
this institution does more than any other to 
meet these wants. But it must be remember- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 87 

ed that such schools are properly sustained 
only where there is a large number of benev- 
olent and intelligent persons to teach them. 

But in our country, the places which most 
need such labourers are the very places where 
the fewest are to be found. And even in the 
most favoured portions of our land, much 
of Sunday instructions is committed to very 
young persons, while the parents often are 
thus led to throw off their own responsibility 
upon those of less experience. 

Moreover, if the moral training of children 
is neglected through the six days of the week, 
in which they are exposed to the most tempta- 
tion, how vain to expect that all the consequent 
evil is to be remedied by gathering them for 
an hour or two on Sunday, to receive religious 
instruction. Even were this a remedy, there 
are thousands of places in our land where no 
Sunday-schools are to be found. 

Many persons justify the neglect of moral 
training in our schools, by claiming that reli- 
gion must be banished from schools, on account 
of the great diversity of sects, who cannot agree 
in this matter. Such are little aware on how 
many important points all sects are agreed. 



88 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

To exhibit this, and to aid any who may be in- 
duced to attempt a course of moral and reli- 
gious training in their schools, the following 
is presented as an outline of a course of in- 
struction that could be introduced into all 
schools, without violating the conscientious 
scruples of a single denomination in this na- 
tion, professing to be Christian. 

In the first place, all children in schools, can 
be taught, that the Bible contains the rules of 
duty given by God, which all men are bound 
to obey. This is what all denominations allow, 
and if there is any dispute about which trans- 
lation is the proper one, each child can be al- 
lowed to use the Bible his parents think to be 
right. 

When this is duly taught, the children can 
be required, for several successive mornings, 
each to repeat a passage from the Bible, which 
teaches the character of God. 

When this subject is exhausted, then the 
teacher can compose a form of prayer consist- 
ing exclusively of passages from the Bible, to 
be used as the first act of school duty. The 
children might be required to repeat each por- 
tion, either with, or after the teacher, simulta- 
neously, and thus unite in the exercise. 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 89 

The following is presented as a specimen of 
the prayers, of which a great variety could be 
made, simply by arranging texts from the Bi- 
ble : 

O God, thou art my God ; early will I seek 
thee. 

My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O 
Lord ; in the morning will I direct my prayer 
unto thee, and look up. 

For thou art not a God that hast pleasure in 
wickedness ; neither shall evil dwell with thee. 

Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness ; make 
thy way straight before my face. 

Remove far from me vanity and lies ; give 
me neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with 
food convenient for me ; 

Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, " Who 
is the Lord ?" or lest I be poor and steal, and 
take the name of my God in vain. 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole mat- 
ter. Fear God and keep his commandments, 
for this is the whole duty of man. 

For God shall bring every work into judg- 
nf^nt, with every secret thing. 

O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, 
because we have sinned against thee ; neither 
H 2 



90 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, 
to walk m his laws which he set before us. 

To the Lord our God belong mercies and 
forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against 
him. 

For thou art the Lord, the Lord God, mer- 
ciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant 
in mercy and truth. Therefore will we trust 
in thee. 

To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory 
and majesty, dominion and power, both now 
and ever. Amen. 

Or this : 

O Lord, my God, thou art very great ; thou 
art clothed with honour and majesty : 

Who coverest thyself with light as with a 
garment,*tvho stretchest out the heavens like a 
curtain. 

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in 
great waters, who maketh the clouds his char 
iot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind 

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle . 
who shall dwell in thy holy hill ? 

He that walketh uprightly and worketh rig^ 
teousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart 

He that backbiteth not with his tongue, noi 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 91 

CiOeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a 
reproach against his neiglibour. 

In whose eyes a vile person is contemned ; 
but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. 

He that sweareth to his own hurt, and chan- 
geth not. 

He that doeth these things shall never be 
moved. 

Lord, thou hast searched me and known 
me. 

Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up- 
rising ; thou understandest my thoughts afar 
off. 

Thou compassest my path and my lying 
down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 

For there is not a word in my tongue, but 
lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. 

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and 
laid thine hand upon me. 

Such knowledge is too wonderful .for me ; 
it is high ; I cannot attain unto it. 

1 will praise thee, for I am fearfully and won- 
derfully made ; marvellous are thy works, and 
that my soul knoweth right well. 

Search me, O God, and know my heart; try 
me, and know my thoughts ; 



92 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

And see if there be any wicked way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting. 

Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisi- 
ble, the only wise God, be honour and glory 
now and forever. Amen. 

Next, the children may be required to bring 
texts in reply to such questions as these : 

Who is Jesus Christ? 

For what did he come into this w^orld ? 

What is the character of Jesus Christ ? 

What has he done for us ? 

What does he require of us ? 

What is to be the condition of those who 
are wicked after death ? 

What is to be the condition of the good 
after death ? 

How are we to escape from the portion of 
the wicked after death ? 

How are we to gain the rewards of the good 
after death ? 

Some such question can be given each 
morning ; and the children can be required 
to learn a text from the Bible, which will 
answer this question, to repeat the next morn- 
ing. If they are too young to find it them- 
selves, they can be required to ask the aid of 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 93 

their companions who are older, or of their 
friends at home. 

The being, character, and works of God, the 
feehngs and duties owed to him, and our rela- 
tions and duties in reference to a future state, 
are the topics which usually are classed as 
religious instruction. ^ 

Moral training commonly is understood as 
relating to the duties we owe to ourselves 
and to our fellow-creatures. In this depart- 
ment the following methods could be adopted : 

Each morning, some one of such practical 
texts as the following could be given out for 
the children to reflect on through the day, and 
in reference to which, they can be required to 
seek from books, or from their friends, some 
cases in which this command of God is either 
obeyed or disobeyed. 

" Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 

" Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to you, do ye even so to them." 

" Recompense to no one evil for evil." 

" Forbear one another, and forgive one an- 
other, if any one have a quarrel ; as Christ for- 
gave you, so also do ye." 

" Bless them that curse you; bless, and curse 



94 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

" If thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he 
thirst, give him drink." 

" Put away lying, and speak every one truth 
with his neighbour." 

" Put on humbleness of mind, meekness, long 
suffering." 

" Be followers of Christ, who did no sin, nei- 
ther was guile found in his mouth ; who hath 
left us an example, that we should walk in his 
steps." 

When such texts are given out, their spirit 
and meaning should be illustrated by example, 
and then the children should be required to 
learn the text, and next morning to bring some 
case to illustrate the violation of, or obedience 
to this rule. 

But it is not sufficient to give children clear 
views of duty, and store their memories with 
the precepts enforcing their duties. 

The teachers should keep a strict watch 
over the children, and whenever any conduct 
or disposition appears, that violates these rules, 
they should be pointedly applied. A precept 
from the Bible should be employed to counter- 
act whatever bad disposition or bad conduct 
is observed. 



ILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 95 

For example, if a child complains that a com- 
panion has defaced his book, let the faulty child 
be called up, and made to repeat the comm.and 
of God which he has violated : such as, " What- 
soever ye would that men should do to you, do 
ye even so to them." If a child has taken a 
pen from his companion without leave, take oc- 
casion, on reprimanding him, to set before the 
school the evil and danger of pilfering. En- 
large on the nobleness of strict honesty and 
uprightness. Show that the evil is not so much 
the loss of property by the owner as the had 
habit induced in the pilferer, which may lead 
at last to the dungeon and the gallows. 

Again, if a child is found to he prevaricating, 
or using any kind of deceit, require him to re- 
peat the commands of God^ " Thou shalt not 
bear false witness." " Lie not at all." " Ly- 
ing lips are an abomination to the Lord, but 
they that deal truly are his delight." 

Then set forth lying before the school, as 
what should be held in universal abhorrence ; 
show the importance of truth, as indispensable 
to the existence of society and the happiness 
of all beings ; show how any kind of attempts 
at deceit weakens the habit of truthfulness, and 
certainly will lead, at last, to lying. 



96 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

When it is needful to punish, endeavour to 
select a penalty that will have a good effect on 
the school, instead of one that will awaken 
sympathy for the offender. When a child is 
.whipped/m many cases, his cries excite pity and 
sympathy, and often indignation at the teacher. 
But if, when a child has broken the laws of 
God, the teacher sets forth the evil of the sin, 
and then takes some such precept as this. 
" Withdraw thyself from every brother that 
walketh disorderly," as his directory in requi- 
ring all the school to be separate from him, 
shutting him out from the play-ground, and de- 
priving him of the usual period of recess un- 
til the delinquent appears penitent and anxious 
to do well ; then the teacher appears to the 
school as acting hy Divine authority, and for 
the good of the whole. 

There are many sins against such commands 
of God as these : " Let all things be done de- 
cently and in order." " Whatsoever things are 
■ lovely and of good report, think of these things." 
" Be ye courteous." The violations of the rules 
of politeness, of neatness, and of order, come 
under these precepts, and school is the place, 
above all others, where such faults should be 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 97 

checked. Throwing down hats and caps, abu- 
sing clothes, tearing books, defiling desks with 
ink, cutting the benches, marking the walls, are 
faults which ought to be noticed as disobedience 
to these rules. So, also, rude language, call- 
ing nicknames, teasing and frightening com- 
panions, mocking the aged, or deformed, or 
lame, cruel treatment of birds and other ani- 
mals, injuring trees, and many similar practi- 
ces, should be checked by appeals to the Word 
of God. 

In addition to this, let the benefits of refined 
taste and good breeding be set forth by specific 
examples. Show the consequences where the 
children of a community are rude in the streets, 
abuse and injure fences, milestones, graveyards, 
and fruit-trees, and then set forth the advanta- 
ges o{ street politeness, of the care of our neigh- 
bours' property, and of all that belongs to the 
public. 

In all efforts to lead children to benevolent 
feelings and conduct, it is very important to 
set before them the example of Jesus Christ, 
appealing to their feelings of gratitude and 
love. 

If a child frets at being obliged to serve an- 
I 



98 AMERICAN "WOMEN ! 

Other, let him be reminded that Jesus Christ 
has done far more for him, and that he came 
into this world to set us an example, that we 
should walk in his steps. 

While it is indispensable to notice and re- 
prove faults, it is no less important to notice 
and approve whatever is commendable in chil 
dren. And much care should be taken to ob- 
seive whatever is right, for it is much easier 
and much better to govern by motives of pleas- 
ure rather than those of pain. 

Whenever, therefore, any cases are observ- 
ed of kindness, firmness, patience, truth, and 
faithfulness, let them be spoken of, not in such 
a way as to awaken vanity, but simply with 
approbation as right, and wprthy of imitation. 

For example, if a child gives up some grat- 
ification in order to relieve some poor com- 
panion, or furnish a destitute schoolmate with 
clothes or books ; if a child has aided or defend- 
ed a companion when laughed at, or ill-treat- 
ed; if another has found some tempting article, 
and. instead of secreting it, has sought out the 
owner and returned it ; if, when insulted and 
provoked, another has refrained from angry 
words and all retaliation ; if another has refu- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY ? 99 

sed to believe evil of a companion, and endeav- 
oured to stop an injurious report ; if another has 
taken care to preserve his own premises from 
filth and disorder, and protected the school- 
house and play-ground from abuse : let all 
such actions be presented to the school as 
good, and worthy of imitation. Commenda- 
tion not only encourages and animates those 
who do well, but inspires the desire to imitate 
in others. 

In cases where a teacher assumes the care 
of a school where there are many children who 
have formed bad habits, it is very important 
that he should imitate Christ in his feelings and 
deportment towards sinners. In such a case, 
it is very important to convince his pupils that, 
however bad they are, he is still their friend, 
and ever ready to do them good. He should 
state to them that he is aware that they have 
formed bad habits, and that the labour of cu- 
ring them is great and difficult. He should 
carefully notice all attempts to do better, and 
where there are efforts made to improve, occa- 
sional failures should be spc^en of with words 
of kindness, sympathy, and encouragement. 

And all teachers need to be careful not to 



100 

oe so frequent in finding fault, and so severe 
in manner as to produce the feeling of hope- 
lessness in efforts to please and satisfy. When 
a child feels that, however earnestly he may 
try to do right, he has such bad habits already 
formed that he shall not succeed so as to 
please his teacher, all motive for exertion 
ceases, and he becomes reckless and hardened. 

The great art of curing faults is, so to se- 
cure the affection and confidence of a child, 
that he shall be a cheerful co-worker with his 
teacher, assured of approbation in success, 
and of forbearance and sympathy in any failure. 

In cases where the morals of a school are 
very bad, it will be wise for a teacher to let 
many things pass unnoticed that in a better 
community he would reprove. 

Some one, two, or three rules of duty can 
be presented at a time, and diligent efforts be 
made to remedy habits which violate these 
rules. When some gain has been made on 
these points, then one or two more can be 
added, and thus a gradual advance will secure 
far more success^than attempting everything 
at once. 

There are many ways of rendering the 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 101 

Bible interesting to children, which should, if 
possible, be introduced into common schools. 
Some of these will be mentioned. 

When reading the historical parts of the 
Old or New Testament, a large map of Pales- 
tine and the other countries spoken of in the 
Bible, should be suspended before the school, 
and all the places mentioned be pointed out. 
There are large maps of this kind to be ob 
tained of the Sunday-school Union. 

There is also a cheap chart of history pre- 
pared by a Mr. Lyman, which is most excel- 
lent for aiding in the study both of sacred and 
profane history. It is so made that it can be 
hung conveniently around the wall of a school- 
room, and is so large, that children can read 
the names and events while sitting in their 
seats. 

Besides these articles, there are large draw- 
ings to be obtained of the tabernacle and all 
the articles spoken of in the Pentateuch, and 
others, also, that illustrate the manners and cus- 
toms, dress, furniture, and dwellings of the Is- 
raelites, and the scenery of Palestine. These 
pictures, employed to illustrate the history of 
the Bible, would give wonderful interest to the 
12 



102 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

exercise of reading it. It is hoped that, ere 
long, gentlemen of wealth will begin to endow 
common schools with such useful apparatus, 
instead of confining their benefactions exclu- 
sively to higher seminaries. 

In reading the Bible in schools, the follow- 
ing method will be found to be both useful 
and interesting: Let the teacher, by the aid 
of Townsend's Bible, arrange a regular course 
of Bible history chronologically, selecting only 
such chapters as will carry on a connected 
and complete history. This can be read 
aloud by the children in portions each morn- 
ing ; and by the aid of the maps, pictures, and 
charts, a vivid interest can be imparted to the 
exercise, while, at the same time, opportu- 
nities will be given to the teacher to notice in- 
cidents that convey moral instruction. 

After this course is completed, then the 
teacher can prepare a course of biograph- 
ical reading, arranged in chronological order, 
and use this opportunity also to point out the 
moral instruction to be found in these histories 
of individuals. Next, he might arrange a 
course embracing the didactic portions of the 
Bible, combining in one course of reading all 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 103 

the moral precepts ; and while this is going on, 
he can collect anecdotes to relate to the school 
illustrating these precepts. Lastly, he might 
make a selection of the poetry and other rhe- 
torical beauties of the Bible, and, while this is 
being read, point out the inimitable sublimity 
and beauty of the ideas and the style. The In- 
troduction to the Study of the Bible by Home, 
the larger edition, and Lowth on Hebrew poe- 
try, are works which would greatly aid a teach- 
er in such a course of Biblical instruction.* 

In this course of moral training, it will be 
seen that there is nothing sectarian, and no- 
thing which would b« objected to by any but 
those o posed to the use of the Bible in schools, 
and to all religious and moral training. In 
such cases, it would be proper to adopt the 
following course : 

It could be stated to the objector, that in 
this country it is the majority that must de- 
cide every question not already settled by the 
Constitutions of the state or nation. That, in 
regard to the question of moral and religious 
training in the schools, the people are free to 
use their own judgment. That where the ma- 

* See note A. 



104 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

jority wish to have such training a part of 
school exercises, they have a right to require 
it. But in cases where persons object to hav- 
ing their children so trained, the majority have 
no right to insist on it. In order to avoid this, in 
every case where a parent requests it, his chil- 
dren can be allowed to leave the schoolroom 
while these exercises are going on, to study, or 
to perform some other school duty. Or if this is 
inconvenient, they can be allowed to come 
half an hour later, and then remain half an 
hour longer, after the others are dismissed. 
No man could object to such an arrangement 
without violating the first principle of our de- 
mocracy, by demanding that the minority, and 
not the majority, shall be accommodated in 
this matter. 

Now is it not practicable for every woman, 
who attempts to promote the proper education 
of American children, to use whatever influ- 
ence she may have with parents, or teachers 
to secure such a course of moral training in 
the schools in her own vicinity, as is here indi- 
cated ? Let every woman try what she can 
do to promote this important object. 

American woman, whose eye may be rest- 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 105 

ing on this page, are you willing to commence 
an effort to aid in saving your country from 
the perils of ignorance ? Are you not spending 
more time in adorning your person, your chil- 
dren, or your residence, or in social enjoy- 
ments, or in providing for the gratification of 
the palate, than you have yet given to this 
cause? Can you continue this unchristian, 
unpatriotic apportionment of time, without an 
upbraiding conscience ? Do you say that al- 
ready you have more to do than you can prop- 
erly perform ? But, in the hst of your pursuits, 
are there not some that are of far inferior con- 
sequence to this, which it vi^ould do no harm to 
curtail, and thus gain time for this ? Do you 
not spend time and money for articles of dress, 
or ornaments, or in social intercourse, or for 
needless luxuries, that you might, without any 
evil, give up to this object ? 

Do you say that you can do but little, and 
relieve yourself from obligation because it is 
so Uttle ? Suppose each drop of rain should 
urge this plea, and thus delay to refresh the 
fields ? Is not every great and good work ac- 
complished by a union of many little influen- 
ces, and as much so in the moral as in the nat- 
ural world ? 



106 AMERICAN WOMEN 

Are you dwelling in those parts of our land 
where most is done for education, and com- 
forting yourself that at least you and yours 
shall escape in safety ? But how can you tell 
that in five or ten years either you, or those 
you love best, will not be the other side of the 
Alleghany, and in the most destitute portion 
of the nation ? The changes of fortune, the 
pursuit of wealth, the mutations of matrimoni- 
al connexions, utterly forbid any reUance on 
permanency of residence. 

And how can one portion of this nation suf- 
fer and the other escape ? Is not the vast Riv- 
er Valley, whatever may be the character of 
its millions, to hold the controlling power of 
our nation 1 If any portion of the fair West 
be tortured with civil commotion and lawless 
rage, will not every groan re-echo from the ma- 
ternal heart of New-England and New- York, 
whose sons and daughters are dwelling on ev- 
ery prairie and in every valley of our land ? 

Mother, whose hands are so busy in orna- 
menting your darling child ; Sister, whose fin- 
gers fly so swiftly over the canvass or lace ; 
Daughter, so earnestly engaged in preparing 
your elegant habiliments, look back to that 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 107 

beautiful daughter of emperors, that sister of 
kings, that mother of princes, brought to her 
palace-home amid a nation's transports, the 
welcome bride of the nation's heir. 

Again, on the birth of her first-born, hear the 
triumphant paean re-echoed across the ocean, 
sung by the very children in our streets, and 
in the memory of many nov^ on the stage : 

" A Dauphin's born ! let cannon loud 
With echoes rend the sky ; 
All hail to Gallia's King ! 
Columbia's great ally !" 

And thus the great English orator of that 
day describes her : " It is now sixteen or sev- 
enteen years since I saw the Queen of France, 
then the Dauphiness, at Versailles : and sure- 
ly never lighted on this orb, which she scarce- 
ly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision ! 
I saw her, just above the horizon, decorating 
and cheering the elevated sphere she just be- 
gan to move in, glittering like the morning 
star, full of life, and splendour, and joy. Lit- 
tle did I dream I should have lived to see such 
disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant 
men, in a nation of men of honour and of cav- 
aliers. I thought ten thousand swords would 



108 AMERICAN WOMEN ! 

have leaped from their scabbards to avenge 
even a look that threatened her with insult." 

Look, now, through those prison bars. There, 
pale and mournful, upon a pallet of straw, rests 
one for whom the splendours of Versailles 
scarcely seemed enough. Her once bright 
locks, even in youth, are gray with fear and 
sorrow. She is in solitude; her husband in 
one cell, and her weeping children, torn from 
her and placed with brutal keepers, in anoth- 
er. And now her husband is borne forth to 
a bloody death. Again her prison doors un- 
close, and she comes forth, seated on the fatal 
car, her hands tied behind her back, surround- 
ed by thousands, who shout with malignant 
joy as the fatal guillotine terminates her woes. 

See that last and most innocent sufferer, the 
poor little Dauphin, every tender feeling crush- 
ed, deliberately instructed in vice, doomed to 
disgusting and degrading services, and, ere 
long, cruelly starved to death ! 

American mother, wife, sister, daughter, the 
same earthquake is trembling under your feet ! 
If such an awful period agitates any portion 
of this land, it will be those raised by wealth 
and station as the objects of popular envy, who 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? 109 

must first meet the storm. You sit now in 
peace and plenty ; you spend your time in 
elegant pleasures, and, w^hile absorbed in self- 
ish enjoyment, you forget the young and des- 
titute growing up around you. And as you 
embroider the flower, and twine the silk, and 
fold the riband, they are learning to sharpen 
the dagger, and twine the cord, and plant the 
cannon. Within a stone's throw of that smi- 
ling child with golden locks, who now absorbs 
a mother's thoughts, may be growing up, in 
the darkness of ignorance and vice, the very 
hand that, at some awful crisis, will grasp 
those locks in rage, and plant the dagger in 
that happy bosom. 

And when, in some after hour of terror and 
distress, when the roar of musketry is heard, 
shooting down father and husband, and broth- 
er and friend ; when the bells are tolling, and 
the drums beating, and the wife, mother, and 
daughter behold those they love best girding 
t-o meet the violators of law ; when they catch 
the parting expression of flushed excitement, 
or stern determination, or serious foreboding, 
as the loved one departs, perhaps to be return- 
ed a breathless corse — then, in the hour of 
K 



110 AMERICAN women! 

anxious solitude, will the solemn inquest h^ 
made for those ruffian minds, ruined by neg- 
lect ; and the voice of the Lord God will be 
heard, walking in the trees of the garden, de- 
manding, " Where is thy brother ?" And the 
trembling response, "Am I my brother's keep- 
er ?" will meet the stern rebuke, " What hast 
thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood 
crieth unto me from the ground." 

But why appeal to motives of fear and danger? 
Alas ! those thousands and millions of neglected 
little ones in our land, they know not their wants 
or their danger, or they would raise their sup- 
plicating hands. Is there anything more a^ 
propriate than that gentle woman should be 
invoked to their aid ? Is there anything more 
beautiful, more heavenly, than that she should 
spend her time, and thoughts, and means to 
rescue them ? What is it that you would en- 
joy the most in after days, gazing at the fading 
beauties you have wrought in canvass, muslin, 
or lace, or looking around on the intelligent, 
useful, happy minds you have been instrument- 
al in training, and who will rise up and call 
you blessed ? True, you cannot gain this rich 
reward without some self-denying toil and 



WILL YOU SAVE YOUR COUNTRY? Ill 

persevering effort. But is it not worth the 
labour ? 

And vt^hen your eye is closing on earth, and 
the memories of the past are hovering around 
your pillow, who do you wish should meet 
your dying eye, the haggard faces of those 
ruined by your neglect, or the grateful smiles 
of those you have toiled to bless, who will bear 
you in their love and prayers, like seraph's 
wings, to the opening gates of heaven ; who 
will shine forever as stars in your crown of 
rejoicing ? 

And into that world of perfected benevo- 
lence and joy, who is it that shall enter and 
go no more out ? It is those who, in this 
world, have followed the footsteps of Jesus 
Christ ; who have lived, not for themselves, but 
for otliers ; who, like him, have denied them^ 
selves daily to promote the salvation of the 
lost. Is not Jesus Christ presented as the 
bright and perfect example of self-denying 
benevolence, and is it not written, " If any man 
have not the spixnt of Christ, he is none of his?" 

Oh, ye who are appointed by Him, who toil- 
ed for your salvation, to go forth and rescue 
these httle ones, what saith your great Exem- 



112 AMERICAN women! 

plar ? " Ye are the light of the world ; and if 
the light in you be darkness, how great is 
that darkness !" 

Where, then, are your golden lamps ? 
Whom will you guide to the light and liberty 
of his presence ? Awake, from the dream 
of thoughtless pleasure ! Awake from the 
reveries of selfish care, and save yourselves 
and your country, ere it be forever too late ! 



A PLAN PROPOSED. 

It is the object of what follows, to enable every 
woman, who wishes to do something- for the cause 
of education and her country, to act immediately, be- 
fore the interest awakened is absorbed by other pur- 
suits. 

The thing to be aimed at is, the employment of fe- 
male talent and benevolence in educating ignorant and 
neglected American children. 

In order to give an idea of what needs to be done, 
and of what can be done, some facts will be stated of 
which the writer of this volume has personal knowl- 
edge. There are, in all parts of this country, women 
of education and benevolence, and some of them 
possessing wealth, who are longing for something 
to do, which is more worthy of their cultivated en- 
ergies than the ordinary pursuits of women of lei- 
sure. There is a still greater multitude of women 
of good sense and benevolence, who, if educated, 
would make admirable teachers, but who now have 
no resource but the needle and the manufactory. It 
is melancholy to see, in all mechanical trades where 
woman's labour is available, how many thousands 
are following pursuits, many of them injurious to 
health and to morals, and none of them qualifying 
a woman, in any respect, for future domestic duties. 

In the schoolroom, or at domestic service, a wom- 
K 2 



114 WANT OF GOOD TEACHERS. 

an is learning to train children, and to perform do- 
mestic duties properly, but in the workshop and 
manufactory, she follows a monotonous toil, useful 
neither to body nor mind, often injurious to both, and 
formnig habits and tastes disqualifying her for future 
domestic duties.* 

On the other hand, in all parts of our country, es- 
pecially at the West, there are multitudes of flour- 
ishing towns and villages willing and anxious to have 
good schools, and able and ready to support them, 
but unwilling to do anything to sustain the miserable 
apology for teachers within their reach. And still 
broader regions are to be found, in every direction, 
not only without good teachers, but in many cases 
without any desire for schools of any kind. Our 
two million destitute children are an appalling oroof 
of this destitution and apathy. 

Now, there are hundreds and thousands of enter- 
prising, benevolent, and, many of them, well educa- 
ted women, who would rejoice to go forth as mis- 
sionary teachers to these destitute children. Such 
women, by their influence, not only in their schools, 
but in the village around them, could do almost as 
much as a missionary, and at far less expense. 
For a woman needs support only for herself, a man 
requires support for himself and a family. And 
there are multitudes of such women, sighing over 
our destitute country and wishing to be sent forth 
on such a service, and yet they know of no way to 
secure the object of their wishes. 
* See note B, p. 153. 



CATHOLIC ENTERPRISE. 115 

In the Catholic Church, a wisdom is shown on 
this subject, which Protestants as yet have not ex- 
hibited. In that Church, if a lady of wealth and fam- 
ily is led to devote herself to benevolent enterpri- 
ses, a post is immediately found for her as Lady Ab- 
bess, or Lady Patroness, or Lady Superior, where 
she secures the power, consideration, and rank, 
which even ambition might covet. There is now a 
Catholic institution in one of our principal western 
cities, known to the writer, which is superintended 
by a lady of rank and family from Belgium, and 
which is only a branch of a still larger institution in 
Belgium, over which another titled lady presides. 
And there are several other ladies of family and 
fortune from Europe, who are spending their time 
and wealth in gathering American children into 
the Catholic Church. Meantime, all women of 
humbler station have places provided, as Nuns or 
Sisters of Charily, where they can spend their be- 
nevolent energies in honoured activity. The cler- 
gy, having no families to occupy their time, devote 
their whole attention to the extension of their faith 
hy schools as well as by planting churches. To these 
instrumentalities are added the Jesuit establishment 
in this country, expressly devoted to the interests 
of education, with the head Jesuit for the West sta- 
tioned in Cincinnati, to supervise and promote all 
plans for education. He is a man of winning man- 
ners, great policy, untiring industry, and, so far as 
human eye can see, honestly and sincerely devoted 
to the cause he has espoused. Under his watchful 



116 PROTESTANT APATHY. 

eye, no energy, or benevolence, or skill is ever lost, 
but all is husbanded and skilfully directed. 

But among Protestants there is no system or or- 
ganization instituted, thus to secure and employ the 
benevolent energies of the female sex in the cause 
of education. If a woman finds it in her heart to 
turn missionary and go away from her country to 
instruct the heathen, in most cases, every facility is 
provided, and public sentiment urges and encourages 
her efforts, and she knows to whom to apply for 
support and encouragement. But let a woman be- 
come interested in her own country, and earnestly 
desire to labour for destitute American children, 
and no such means, or facilities exist as make it suit- 
able, or practicable to undertake. Among Catholics, 
let a woman of family and fortune talk of going to 
the West to teach, and she instantly is lauded as a 
saint ; bishops, priests, and Jesuits are at her side 
to encourage and aid, and honour in life and canon- 
ization at death are her sure reward. But let a 
Protestant woman of wealth and high standing ex- 
press a wish and intention to go to the West to 
teach, and it would be regarded by most of her 
friends and associates as a mark of oddity — a de- 
ficiency of good sense. Family friends would op- 
pose, acquaintances would sneer, a few would faint- 
ly approve, no individual and no body of men could 
be found, whose appropriate business it is to aid, 
and so many obstacles would oppose, that, in most 
cases, it would really be Quixotic to encounter them. 
And women in humbler circumstances find almost 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. ] 17 

as insurmountable obstacles ; they know of no place 
where they can g-o, it is the business of no one to 
aid them, they know of no one to whom to apply 
for assistance, and thus it is that hundreds and 
hundreds of women, abundantly competent to act 
as missionary teachers, are pining in secret over 
wasted energies, which they are longing to spend in 
the most appropriate duty of women, the training of 
young minds for usefulness and for Heaven. It may 
be replied, that in the Catholic Church women take 
vows of celibacy, which alone can enable them thus 
to act for the cause of education, and that no such ef- 
ficient action for education can be anticipated from 
Protestant women, whose religious faith opposes 
rather than encourages this sequestration from do- 
mestic alliances. A few facts will serve to show 
the fallacy of this impression. A lady of New- 
England, who for a number of years conducted a 
large female institution, furnishes this as the result 
of her experience. During nine years, four hundred 
teachers went out from this institution. Of these, 
eighty-eight went to the West and South. At the 
end of these nine years, of the eighty-eight who went 
to the West and South, sixty-four (which is more than 
three fourths) continued as teachers. Twelve of 
these continued teachers after marriage. During 
three years of this time, a society connected with 
this institution was in operation to aid young women 
in educating themselves to be teachers. This as- 
sistance was in the form of a loan, which at no time 
was to exceed two hundred dollars to any one indi- 



118 WHAT CAN BE DONE. 

vidual, and this loan was to be returned whenever it 
was practicable. The society remitted the debt in 
cases where it was not. Means were also provided 
for the appropriate protection and location of these 
teachers. The number who in three years received 
aid was forty-three^ and the sum of $4340,00 was 
loaned for this purpose. Twenty-four of these, in 
the space of eight years from the first loans, refund- 
ed from their own earnings all that was loaned. 
Eight refunded in part. The remainder did not re- 
fund within the eight years, but all who were not 
sick or dead were expecting and aiming so to do. 

A clergyman, who for a number of years was a 
travelling agent for one of our benevolent institu- 
tions, and who felt an interest in discovering the 
results of the above effort, stated it as his convic- 
tion, that no college in our country had, in the same 
period, done more for the cause of education and 
religion in our land than this institution had done 
by sending forth its female teachers. Many other 
similar facts could be stated, showing that there is 
even a greater chance of permanent results in era- 
ploying a given sum for the education of female 
teachers, than for the education of young men for 
the ministry. 

The lady who conducted this institution, and fur- 
nished these facts, also stated, that at all times the 
number of those desirous of qualifying themselves 
for teachers, and who would gladly have obtained 
loans for this end, was far beyond the means the 
society could command, while the demands sent on 



DEMAND FOR TEACHERS. 119 

to this institution for teachers, from the South and 
West, was altogether more than could be supplied ; 
thus showing that there were places demanding 
teachers, and teachers seeking for places, and no 
adequate instrumentality in existence for meeting 
these reciprocal demands. In the Eastern States, 
it is the testimony of school committees, and others 
employed in selecting teachers, that crowds of fe- 
male applicants are constantly turned aside, not 
because they are not qualified, but because the 
number of applicants greatly exceeds that of the 
vacancies. 

Another lady, who had conducted a large female 
mstitution in New-England, made an attempt to aid 
women of education and benevolence, who were 
anxious to act as teachers, and wished for aid in 
finding a proper location. The failure of health in- 
terrupted her eff'orts, yet, with a very limited inqui- 
ry, more than a hundred women of appropriate spirit 
and qualifications were immediately found, anxious 
to avail themselves of such aid; while the rumour 
of such an effort, for two or three years, brought 
letters to her from all parts of the country, asking 
assistance, some of them in the most moving terms. 

By the census, it appears that the excess of fe- 
male population in New-England over that of the 
other sex is more than 14,000. From extensive in- 
quiries and consultation, the writer believes that 
one fourth of these women would gladly engage as 
teachers; that a large part are already qualified, 
and that the others could be fitted for these duties 



120 FAILURE OF A GOOD PLAN 

at an average expense of two hundred dollars 
each. 

Another fact will be mentioned to show the waste 
of female talent and benevolence for want of some 
organized agency which secures men whose business 
it is to attend to the interests of education. 

A lady, who had conducted a large female institu- 
tion in New-England, removed to one of the largest 
western cities, and, in connexion with several other 
ladies of experience and reputation, established an 
institution, which they designed, eventually, should 
become an institution for the preparation and loca- 
tion of female teachers, with a school connected 
with it, supported by the citizens, which should 
serve as a model school. It was hoped that, when 
the teachers had gained public confidence at the 
West, as they had done at the East, funds would be 
furnished, both at the East and West, which would 
enable these ladies to say to hundreds of their coun- 
trywomen interested in the effort, " Here is a resort 
for you, where you may qualify yourselves to be 
first-rate teachers, and be aided in finding a location 
in the many flourishing but destitute towns and vil- 
lages of the West." 

The school was abundantly patronised, and suc- 
cessfully conducted. The ladies then applied for a 
fund of some $30,000, given for purposes of educa- 
tion, by a gentleman of that city, and not specifical- 
ly devoted to any particular object. The trustees 
of this fund voted to devote it to this enterprise, if 
the citizens would raise $ 1 5,000 for a building. The 



FROM WANT OF ORGANIZATION. 121 

citizens manifested all appropriate interest, so far 
as kind words and liberal offers were concerned. 
Two gentlemen subscribed a thousand dollars each,, 
and several five hundred each, and nothing waa 
needed but a person properly qualified^ who should de- 
vote himself to the enterprise. The ladies conducting 
the school, with failing health and many eares,. 
could not carry forward such an effort, and no man. 
could be found to devote himself to it. The result 
was, that the Catholic bishop bought the building 
occupied by this school for a Catholic female insti- 
tution. No other suitable building could be hired. 
The hard times came on, and funds could not be 
raised to build one ; and thus, with tears of bitter 
disappointment, the school was given up, and the 
whole enterprise failed, and simply because it was 
the business of no person to attend to the general 
interests of education. Had these ladies turned 
Catholics, bishops, priests, Jesuits, and all their 
subordinates, would have been devoted to their 
cause, and rich funds from foreign lands would have 
been laid at their feet. As it was, in a wealthy and 
most liberal Protestant city, where four of the lar- 
gest establishments in its bounds have been pur- 
chased for Catholic institutions of education, and two 
of them for females, 2i Protestant institution, conduct- 
ed by four female teachers of established reputation, 
passed away for want of suitable accommodations. 
Meantime, in that same city, the agents of various 
benevolent societies took up liberal contributions for 
the heathen, for slaves, for drunkards, for sailors, 
L 



122 PROTESTANT BENEVOLENCE. 

for convicts, for colleges (both in and out of the 
city), for the education of young men, for the dis- 
tribution of Bibles and tracts, and for many other 
objects ; because men are supported.^ by voluntary con- 
tribution, to give their whole time to these objects. 

There is no just foundation for the remark not 
unfrequently made, that the Catholic Church con- 
tains more self-denying henevolence than other com- 
munions, while sisters of charity and nuns are point- 
ed out as illustrations. There are hundreds and 
thousands of women in this Protestant land, who, 
without the mistaken principles, possess all the 
self-denying benevolence which, in Catholic com- 
munities, leads to cloistered vows. The writer, 
after extensive inquiaipes in almost all the free 
states, believes it would be far within the bounds 
of moderation to assert that, if any responsible per- 
sons would pledge the pecuniary means and appro- 
priate protection, five hundred benevolent women 
•could be found in less than one month, with all ap- 
propriate qualifications for missionary teachers. 
Some of these are possessed of wealth, and still 
more command a pleasant home, with all the com- 
forts of competence and the best society ; yet they 
would joyfully encounter the privations of mission- 
ary life in efforts to save their country, could any 
appropriate method be devised. 

These allusions to the aid and encouragement of- 
fered to benevolent women in the Catholic Church 
:are not designed to be invidious. Whatever class 
of religionists conscientiously hold, that there is no 



A PLAN PROPOSED. 123 

safety from eternal ruin but in their church, not only 
Christian benevolence, but common humanity should 
impel them to all possible efforts, to gather every hu- 
man being- into their communion. And it is fear- 
ed that Protestants do not alway^make sufficient 
allowance for this consideration. 

The wrong lamented is, not that Catholics act 
consistently with their faith, but that Protestants do 
not offer the same aid and encouragement to benev- 
olent Protestant women, who are so earnest in their 
desires to devote time and talents, and, in some ca- 
ses, wealth, to the salvation of the children of our 
country. 

In view of these facts, it is now proposed to at- 
tempt to raise means for educating destitute Amer- 
ican children, by the agency of women of education 
and benevolence, who wish to engage in the work ; 
and for supporting at least one gentleman of suita- 
ble character and influence, whose time shall be 
wholly devoted to this enterprise. 

The first thing which will be attempted will be 
to select, from those who are desirous to engage in 
such a service, a certain number of those who are 
best qualified by education, energy, discretion, and 
self-denying benevolence, and who are willing to 
be stationed, under the protection of some adjacent 
clergyman, in places where there are neither church- 
es or schools, assured of nothing more than is al- 
lowed to home and foreign missionaries, namely, 
a proper mode of conveyance and location, and 



124 COMMITTEE. 

a simple support^ secured by some responsible per- 
sons. 

A small beginning will be made, under the super- 
vision of a committee of six gentlemen, one from 
each of six diffef#nt Protestant denominations. The 
following gentlemen have consented to act as such 
a committee until more permanent arrangements 
can be made. 

Rev. Dr. Elliot, Cincinnatti. 
Rev. Dr. Lynd, ditto- 
Rev. James H. Perkins, ditto. 
Rev. Dr, M'Guffey, ditto. 
Rev. Dr. "Stowe, ditto. 
Rev. Bishop Smith, Louisville, Kentucky. 

As soon as means are raised sufficient to support 
a gentleman who shall devote himself to this object, 
the above committee will endeavour to organize a 
Board of Managers, consisting of an equal number 
of gentlemen from each of the principal Protestant 
denominations, who are resident in different sections 
of the country, and possess general confidence. 
This board will then appoint an Executive Com- 
mittee, Treasurer, and Secretary, to superintend and 
perform all the business connected with this enter- 
prise, who shall be located either in New-York or 
Cincinnati. 

In order to aid in raising funds for this object, a 
method is proposed, which will enable every woman 



METHOD OF RAISING FUNDS. 125 

who feels an interest in the effort, to contribute, at 
least a small sum, to promote it. 

Two works are now issued by the largest publish- 
ing house in the country, which, it is believed, will 
prove useful and interesting to every American wo- 
man. An account of these works and the terms 
of the contract will be found at the close of this 
volume.* It will be seen that these terms are 
very favourable, and involve no hazard of loss. 
These works will be put into the market and be sold 
at ordinary prices. Half the profits (after paying a 
moderate compensation to the author for the time 
and labour of preparing them, the amount to be de- 
cided by the above gentlemen) will be devoted to 
this object, and as the works are of a kind that will 
always be useful, a large sale would secure both a 
present and future income. 

Any woman, then, who is desirous to aid in pro- 
moting this enterprise, can do so by requesting 
some bookseller in her vicinity to send for these 
works, and then purchasing them herself and using 
her influence to induce her friends to do the same. 
Still more will be effected by securing notices. 
of these works in newspapers and other periodi- 
cals. 

Should means be obtained sufficient to secure the 
services of a suitable gentleman, the following 
measures are suggested as what might be attempt- 
ed. « 

* See Note B. 



126 COMMITTEES OF LADIES. 

In the first place, an efFort could be made to se- 
cure committees of ladies, of each denomination, in 
all our principal cities, who shall agree to act si- 
multaneously, on some uniform plan, and, if need be, 
keep up a correspondence in order to secure this re- 
sult. Such committees might exert themselves in 
one, or all of the following ways : 

They could, firstly, aim to secure the aid and co- 
operation of the conductors of the periodical press, 
literary, political, and religious. The gentleman 
who engages in this enterprise, could write, or 
cause others to write, articles calculated to arouse 
the public mind in regard to popular education. 
These articles could be transmitted to all the affil- 
iated committees in every part of our land, and by 
their influence, be inserted in most of the newspa- 
pers, or other periodicals within their reach. Thus 
a steady and most povi^erful influence would be 
brought to bear on the public mind. The people 
would be aroused, and through the people, the le- 
gislatures might be led to energetic and appropriate 
action. And then, as fast as schools are formed, fe- 
male teachers will be in demand. 

These committees, if it is deemed proper, might 
slao address private letters to clergymen of their 
■several denominations, asking aid and advice. Next 
to the press, the pulpit is the most effective engine 
•of moral power, and, happily, the clergy of this 
flation have ever been among the most ardent 
:and active friends of education, and the warm sup- 
jporters of almost every benevolent enterprise. 



THEIR BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE. 127 

An appeal to them for aid must secure happy re- 
sults. 

Another method, which such committees could 
aoopt, would be, to make personal appeals, both to 
ladies of large means and to those, also, of smaller 
ability, for subscriptions to aid in educating and lo- 
cating female missionary teachers. Such subscrip- 
tions, however, cannot be successfully sought until 
some body is organized, consisting of gentlemen of 
various denominations, who possess public confi- 
dence, and who shall be properly authorized to re- 
ceive and appropriate subscriptions. 

Another and most important measure could be 
prosecuted by these committees. At the East, 
where there is a superabundance of teachers, and 
of women who could speedily be qualified to teach, 
such committees could act in selecting the most suit- 
able women of their own denomination to receive 
the aid provided ; and the number might be regulated 
by the relative amount of subscriptions in each de- 
nomination. 

At the West, such committees could aid in provi- 
ding schools for those sent out, a suitable escort, a 
proper home, and the advice, sympathy, and aid that 
would be needed by a stranger in a strange land. 

"Were such committees known to be in existence 
at the East, they speedily would be addressed by 
multitudes of intelligent and benevolent women, 
seeking aid in their efforts to gain opportunities to 
impart knowledge and salvation to the perishing 
heathen children in our own land. 



128 AN INCIDENT. 

Were such committees in existence at the West, 
and their eyes directed to the desolate regions of 
ignorance around them, they would soon find their 
warmest energies enlisted in gathering outcast 
lambs into the fold of safety, to be trained and guided 
to heaven. 

To impart a more vivid idea of the wants which 
are to be met, and of one of the first objects to be 
aimed at, in the efforts proposed, some incidents in 
the experience of the writer will be narrated. 

In a small village, less than thirty miles from one 
of the largest cities of the West, the writer once 
stopped to dine. Several children were playing 
about, when the following conversation took place : 

" Is there any school in this place V 

" No, madam ; it is a good while since we have 
had one. Miss L. came and taught here nearly a 
year ; but she went home, and we have had no school 
since." 

" How many children are there here who would 
go to a school if there were one 1" 

" I should think there are as many as forty or 
fifty." 

" Do you suppose the parents would like to have 
a school, and would pay the teacher well V 

" Oh, yes ! If we could get a good teacher, she 
would be well paid for her trouble ; but none of us 
know where to get one, and the men folks are too 
busy to go and look for one." 

" Have you any clergyman in the place I" 

" No, madam." 



A WORTHY EXAMPLE. 129 

" Do the people here ever go to any church V 

" Yes, madam ; they sometimes go off a good 
piece to W., where there is preaching some- 
times." 

It was in another village of the West, and one as 
destitute as this, that a young lady from New Eng- 
land, who came out under thercare of a clergyman, 
stationed herself to rear up a school. She agreed 
to teach for a small sum, and to board around with 
the parents of her pupils. 

Most of these parents were from the South, where 
they were unaccustomed to the notions of comfort 
and thrift which the young lady possessed. 

She not only taught the children at school, but, 
in each family where she boarded, taught the house- 
keeper how to make good yeast and good bread. She 
also taught the young women how to cut dresses 
and how to braid straw for bonnets. 

Her instructions in the day-school and in the Sun- 
day-school, and her influence in the families, were 
unbounded, and almost transforming. No minister, 
however well qualified, could have wrought such 
favourable changes in so short a time. 

In another case, known to the writer, a young 
lady went into such a destitute village. There was 
no church, and no minister of any sect. She taught 
the children through the week, and also instituted a 
Sunday-school. In this she conducted religious 
worship herself. Gradually the mothers came to 
attend, then the fathers, until, at last, she found 
herself in the oiRce both of teacher and clergyman. 



130 NO WANT OF LABOURERS. 

The last portion of her duties she resigned to a 
minister, who, by her instrumentality, was settled 
there. 

The writer might mention several other similar 
eases which have come to her knowledge. 

There are hundreds of such destitute places in 
our land, where a prudent, self-denying, and ener- 
getic woman might be instrumental in leading a 
whole community " out of darkness into marvellous 
light," and there are hundreds of such women wish- 
ing to go to them. 

The writer, when returning to the East, has often 
been met by young friends with such representa- 
tions as these : "1 have nothing to employ my time 
which satisfies my conscience. I have education, 
leisure, and means ; can you find me a sphere of 
usefulness which I can reach with propriety ? I 
cannot go off alone ; for, even if I thought it proper, 
my friends would not consent." 

Again, another friend says, " Why cannot you 
find something for Miss G. to do 1 She is well ed- 
ucated, rich, benevolent, and really is suffering for 
want of something to do. She has thought of going 
on a foreign mission, but surely there is enough for 
her to do in her own country." 

Yes, surely, there is enough to do in our own 
country. When will the wise, and the influential, 
and the benevolent awake to this subject, and devise 
the proper mode of meeting such wants 1 

Those who are interested in the project presented 
in this work by no means assume that this is the 



LETTER FROM HON. T. BURROWEg. 131 

hest way. They only feel that something ought to 
be attempted ; and that, if this effort does no other 
good, it may put in train influences that will devel- 
op a better way. 

The writer of this volume also presents this en- 
terprise, not as the plan of an individual, but as a 
project devised, by consultation, among many la- 
dies of influence and benevolence, who are interest- 
ed in securing its success. And if it is effected, it 
is hoped that it will be by such simultaneous interest 
and efforts, that no one will be conspicuous, either 
as originator or leader in the enterprise. 

The views presented in this work are those held 
in common by a large number of intelligent ladies 
in all parts of our land ; and, though one has been 
selected and requested to write this work, it should 
be regarded, not as the opinions of an individual, 
but as a wreath of benevolence, woven, indeed, by 
one hand, but gathered from many noble and benev- 
olent minds. 



The following extracts from letters received from 
gentlemen of high standing in various parts of our 
nation, will serve to corroborate the views express- 
ed in the preceding pages : 

From the Hon. Thomas Burrowes, late Secretary of 
Slate in Pennsylvania. 

I have long been of opinion that the great deficiency 



132 LETTER FROM HON. T. BURROWES. 

of our age and country, in reference to the sound 
instruction of the coming generation, is the want of 
teachers. 

I am now fully convinced that this want must be 
supplied before any other step can be safely or use- 
fully taken. Nay, I believe that, until this indispen- 
sable preliminary measure is accomplished, money, 
and eflfort, and legislation will be, as they have been, 
money, and effort, and legislation nearly thrown 
away. Since 1834, this state has expended more 
than five millions for the support of her common 
schools, and, at the end of ten years, I see but little 
improvement. 

In this immense expenditure, not a dollar has 
been spent to secure this great prerequisite — good 
teachers ; and hence the system has not only failed 
to obtain general favour, but is in danger of becom- 
ing more and more unacceptable the longer it is 
tried. It is sad to think that we have thus wasted 
five millions of dollars, and ten years of time, to say 
nothing of the labour expended and obloquy encoun- 
tered, and must now re-commence from the found- 
ation ; but so it is. 

I know of no cause which so much needs a gen- 
eral movement as this. Let not its friends shrink 
from the undertaking because they may not be able 
to operate in all, or even in many of the states. 
Let it be remembered that if a commencement 
is made in one state, and a report of results sent 
forth, it will serve to start the good work in all the 
rest. 



LETTER FROM HON. T. BURROWES. 133 

The necessities, the crying- necessities of this 
cause, are far and away before those of the Tem- 
perance Reform, or of Colleges, or of Foreign Mis- 
sions. He who, being fit, should devote himself to 
this cause, would confer a greater benefit on his fel- 
low-man than he could possibly do by any other 
use of his time and talents. 

The missionary to a heathen land opens the Booh 
of Life to his fellow-man ; the missionary in this 
cause opens the mind of his fellow-citizens, not only 
to the Book of Life, but to a knowledge of all those 
rights and duties, without which our free institu- 
tions cannot stand to encourage and reform the 
world. 

If my gifts and domestic relations permitted, I 
should devote myself to a mission in this and other 
states for the purpose of impressing on Legislatures, 
philanthropists, and teachers, the necessity of Teach- 
ers^ Seminaries. 

A gentleman, supported to operate in this cause, 
might be employed in this way. He could visit 
different states one after another, and address the 
citizens of each county in the county town, after 
long and full notice. Besides addressing the people 
publicly, he could appeal to leading individuals pri- 
vately, and engage them to act with him for this ob- 
ject. Meantime, he could be obtaining educational 
statistics for future use, and ere long he could make 
such a report as would set the people to work in 
earnest, and for their own sakes. 

While thus proceeding, he could also obtain the 
M 



134 LETTER FROM REV. MR. STURTEVANT. 

promise of one or more intelligent persons in each 
county, to write on the subject every week in each 
of the county newspapers. Articles thus addressed 
to the reason, the patriotism, and the economy of the 
people, would have a powerful elEfect, and cost no- 
thing. 

If funds could be provided from private benevo- 
lence to establish proper Teachers^ Institutions in 
two or three states, they would set the matter far 
ahead in a few years. They would serve as models 
and inducements to the public, and would not long 
continue to need the support of private philanthropy. 
They would really be normal, or pattern establish- 
ments. 

Beyond a doubt, the plan ought to embrace insti- 
tutions for the preparation oi female teachers. The 
gentleness, self-devotion, and untiring humanity of 
women eminently qualify them to be the instructers 
of the more youthful pupils of both sexes, and of 
their own of all ages. There is not a show of any 
reason why male teachers only should be provided 
for at the public charge, when female teachers are 
as necessary, as useful, and as much confided in by 
the public. 

From the Rev. Mr. Sturtevant, President of Illinois 

College. 

In regard to some voluntary organization to se 

cure popular education, if it were worked with a 

truly liberal and Christian spirit, it could, and w^ould, 

do us great good in this state ; first, by collecting 



LETTER FROM REV. HENRY BEECIIER. 135 

Statistics of our wants, and calling attention (by the 
press, and by public lectures all over the state) to 
these wants, and to what has been accomplished in 
other states and countries. 

2. By supporting, at least in part, model schools in 
different parts of the state, to show, by example^ 
what good schools are. 

3. By bringing public sentiment to bear on the 
Legislature, especially in reference to our school 
fund. It is now nearly two millions, and is yearly 
increasing.* Now, its whole management is left to 
the unregulated action of the Legislature, without a 
single mind devoted to acquiring and disseminating 
knowledge as to the proper mode of using it. 
Whether, any one year, there shall be even one in- 
teUigent friend of education in our Legislature, is a 
matter of chance. If some plan be not devised for 
leading the Legislature to wise views, the object of 
this fund will be lost. It will a little diminish the 
expense for each child, but add nothing towards get- 
ting better schools." 

President Sturtevant's account of the deplorable 
state of their schools, and of the public apathy on 
the subject, is mournful. 

From the Rev. Henry Beecher, of Indianapolis, Indiana, 
Much can be done in Indiana, much ought to be 
done, and speedily ; for, 

1. It will be a more densely- populated state than 
Ohio or Illinois, because its land is unifarmly good. 

2. It has been grievously neglected. Its set- 



136 LETTER FROM DR. CORNETT. 

tiers were originally from Kentucky, North Caro- 
lina, and Pennsylvania. Such do better for flocks 
and farms than for mental and moral improvement. 

3. We have a good system of common school 
education, which, for purposes of Church and State 
ambition, some sectarians are disposed to break 
down ; and they are of the dominant sect in the 
state. Those sects that foster education are in the 
minority, and struggling up through many embar- 
rassments. 

4. We have a school fund of more than two mil- 
lionsj which is in such neglect as threatens its entire 
loss. 

An agent should be supported to lecture through 
the state, in every county town, to secure workers 
to defend our school system, to protect our school 
fund from depredators, to secure an annual Educa- 
tion Convention, and otherwise exert influence. 
The right man for such an agent I know. It is a 
Dr. Cornett, of Versailles, Ripley Co., la. He is a 
member of our Senate, and chairman of their Com- 
mittee on Education : a man prudent, cool, saga- 
cious, interested in the cause, and of great weight 
in the community. 

The following is extracted from a letter from the Dr, 
Cornett spoken of above. 

Strange it is, that while the benevolent among 
our people are exerting themselves so much at 
home and aboard, that the thousands and millions 
m our own country who cannot so much as read one 



LETTER FROM DR. CORNETT. 137 

word in the Book of Life, should be overlooked, 
and no organization effected in their behalf. It is 
absurd to think of a Republic being long sustained 
without the people generally being educated. To 
talk of their maintaining their rights when denied 
the means of knowing what their rights are, is to 
talk nonsense. If our whole people could be edu- 
cated by the right sort of teachers, there would be 
little need of temperance societies, and temperance 
newspapers, and lectures, and other means now so 
properly employed for moral reformation. Our chil- 
dren would enter on the practical duties of life with 
pure minds, well fortified against vice in all shapes. 
In Indiana we are in deplorable want of good teach- 
ers for our comn^pn schools. Why cannot some 
plan be devised for educating intelligent boys and 
girls for these duties, and then finding tliem situa- 
tions 1 

In reference to the school fund, he says, 
Many of our state legislators seem more dis- 
posed to favour the borrowing of school money than 
to promote eJbcation. If competent lecturers were 
sent among the people, urging the value of educa- 
tion, both in a fecuniary and political view, these 
same demagogues would find it for their interest to 
become clamorous for the cause. I have been at 
the head of the Senate's Committee on Education, 
and have had great difliculty in sustaining the in- 
tegrity of our school fund. The term of my ser- 
vices has expired, and I cannot resume them. 
From what 1 know of our Legislature, I believe 
M3 



138 LETTER FROM JUDGE LANE. 

there is great need of a stir being made among the 
people in reference to this matter and the cause in 
general. My isolated condition, laborious profes- 
sion, and poor health forbid my following my feel- 
ings in going forth as a voluntary lecturer ; but 
let some organization be eifected, and numerous 
and efficient lecturers would rise up to do gratui- 
tous work. 

The following is from Judge Lane, of the Supreme 
Court of Ohio. 
I believe our Legislature, if left to itself, would 
permit the Common Schools to sink and perish in 
their hands. That body possesses at all times in- 
dividuals of great worth, but th«i larger part have 
very little intelligence, and their motives of action 
are entirely different from those which would sub- 
serve this cause. I believe that an association of 
gentlemen in this state is the only mode of leading 
the Legislature into the necessary measures, and 
that, through them, this might be accomplished hy 
the press and by public lectures (if the fight man and 
measures are employed). I believe that a change 
of public opinion on this subject cannot be secured, 
indirectly, through the elevation of the minds of a 
few, nor by the dissemination of good principles 
by the circulation of Bibles and tracts, or the set- 
tlement of ministers, or the cultivation of young 
men in colleges, or in any other speedy mode ex- 
cept that of an association acting on a specific plan, 
and pursuing it with perseverance, and by expedient 



LETTER FROM E. C. DELAVAN. 139 

means. I deem the employment of some agent in- 
dispensable to give form and intensity to such an 
association ; and a man for this work would require 
a rare combination of qualities. 

The following is from one of the leading Lawyers of 
Ohio. 
The more I think of this subject of national ed- 
ucation, the more I feel anxious to be up and doing. 
I do not think that any other field of labour novi^ 
presents itself in which so much good can be done, 
and it is not the least important consideration, cer- 
tainly, that while thus engaged in doing good to 
others, we shall be, in the highest sense, educating 
ourselves. All that I can do, I feel anxious to do in 
this great work ; and as soon as any plan is defi- 
nitely arranged, I will go to work, and if I can get 
time in no other way, will diminish my business for 
the purpose. 

The following is from E. C. Delavan, Esq., who has 
devoted so much of his time for several years to the 
cause of Temperance. 

The importance of the question of national ed- 
ucation caimot be overrated. In a selfish point of 
view, the old states could well aflFord to be taxed 
a million a year Xo enlighten the new, but they 
will not see it or feel it, I fear, until it is too late ; 
yet much can be done. When leading minds are 
suitably impressed, the mass will be. Under God, 
the press is the great instrument that must be used, 
and a long time before the mass will move. It ap- 



140 LETTER FROM A LAWYEH. 

pears to me that the first step to be taken is to in- 
terest men in all parts of the Union to feed the 'polit- 
ical and religious press. Then, when the public mind 
is aroused, talents and means will be found to take 
hold practically. 

The following is from a Lawyer in Cincinnati. 

Our city and vicinity would furnish room for a 
dozen labourers in this cause instead of one ; and 
one of the most effectual modes of operation would 
be to enlist a dozen others in the cause. A man 
devoted to this cause would be welcomed among 
us as an angel of light by all classes and all sects, 
and would be sure to enjoy the good wishes of all, 
the positive aid of many, and the useful counsel of 
not a few. The spirit of education is largely abroad 
among us, and only wants an efficient leader to en- 
able it to breathe a new existence into the whole 
moral, social, political, and religious being of our 
community here, and, by necessary consequence, 
into the whole valley of the West. We have the 
best tools to work with, the best materials to work 
upon, and we only want, and this we sadly want, 
some person to influence us to use the one and act 
upon the other, by commencing an example. 

I should hail the commencement of such an en- 
terprise as the dawning of a new light upon the 
West, and would not only give what little aid I 
might, but would use all my little influence to make 
it work effectually in its onward progress. 



ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 141 

These extracts will suffice to show the vast field 
of labour open to a man of talents, supported for the 
object aimed at. 

The following extract from an address of Prof. StowCy 

delivered at Portland in 1844, corroborates the views 

expressed by the author on the subject of moral 

training. 

But in this country, in consequence of our un- 
bounded religious freedom, the subdivisions of sect 
are almost innumerable ; it is impossible, in a sys- 
tem of public instruction, to provide separately for 
them all ; and, unless religious instruction can be 
given without sectarianism, it must be abandoned. 

" In this country the rights of all sects are the 
same, and any denomination that would have its 
own rights respected must respect the rights of 
others. 

" The time which can be devoted to religious m- 
struction in schools is necessarily very limited ; 
and if there be an honest and sincere desire to do 
right, the whole of this time certainly can be occu- 
pied, with efficiency and profit, without encroaching 
on the conscience of any sect which really has a 
conscience. 

"Facts show plainly that, notwithstanding the 
diversity of sects, there is common ground on 
which the sincerely pious of all sects substantially 
agree. For example, the most acceptable books of 
practical piety, which are oftenest read by Chris- 
tians of all denominations, have proceeded from 



142 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 

about all the different sects into which Christendom 
is divided, and are read by all with scarcely a rec- 
og-nition of the difference of sect. Such are the 
writings of Thomas a Kempis an.d Fenelon, who 
were Roman Catholics ; of Jeremy Taylor and 
Bishop Hall, who were Churchmen ; of Baxter, 
Watts, and Doddridge, who were Presbyterians or 
Congregationalists ; of Bunyan and Andrew Fuller, 
who were Baptists ; of Fletcher and Charles Wes- 
ley, who were Methodists. This fact alone shows 
that there is common ground, and enough of it too, 
to employ all the time which can properly be de- 
voted to religious instruction in our public institu- 
tions. 

" All Christian sects, without exception, recognise 
the Bible as the text-book of their religion. They 
all acknowledge it to be a book given of God, and 
replete with the most excellent sentiments, moral 
and religious. None will admit that it is unfavour- 
able to their peculiar views, but, on the contrary, 
all claim that it promotes them. To the use of the 
Bible, then, as the text book of religious instruction 
in our schools, there can be no serious objection on 
the part of Christians of any sect ; and even unbe- 
lievers very generally admit it to be a very good 
and useful book. 

"But shall it be the whole Bible 1 or only the 
New Testament] or selections made from one or 
both 1 

"A book of mere selection would be verj'' apt to 
awaken jealousy ; and the exclusion of any part of 



ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 143 

the Scriptures would, to my mind, be painful. Let 
every scholar, then, have a whole Bible. The book 
can now be obtained so cheap, that the expense can 
be no objection. 

" But how can the teacher instruct in the Bible 
without coming on to sectarian ground 1 He can 
teach a great deal in regard to its geography and 
antiquities, and can largely illustrate its narrations, 
and its moral, and even religious, beauties. An hon- 
est, intelligent teacher can find, in this way, abun- 
dant employment for all his time, if he be himself a 
lover and student of the Bible, without ever passing 
into sectarian peculiarities, or giving any reason- 
able ground of offence. 

" But, apart from all this, the chief business of 
instruction in this department may be the commit- 
ting to memory of portions of the Divine Word. 
The most rigidly orthodox will not object to this, 
for they believe every portion of the Bible to be the 
word of God which liveth and abideth forever, and that 
all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correc- 
tion, and instruction in righteousness ; and the liberal, 
though they may not sympathize in the high ortho- 
dox view of the divine excellence of the Word, yet 
regard it as, on the whole, the best of books, and 
the more of it their children have treasured up in 
their minds, the better it must be for them. If the 
parent chooses, he can always himself select the 
portions to be committed by his child, or he may 
leave it to the discretion of the teacher, or he may 
give general directions, as selections from the Gos- 



144 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 

pels, the Proverbs, the Psalms, &c. It is not at all 
essential that all the children of the same school, 
or even of the same class, should recite the same 
passag-es. Each child may be called upon, in turn, 
to recite vi^hat each one has committed, and the re- 
citation may or may not be accompanied by re- 
marks from the teacher, as circumstances may 
seem to justify or require. 

" But there is another difficulty. The Roman 
Catholics, it is said, do not desire, that their children 
should be instructed in the Scriptures ; they receive 
the apocryphal book as a part of Scripture, and con- 
tend that we have not the whole Bible unless we 
include the Apocrypha ; and they object to our com- 
mon English translation. 

" In reply to this, 1 remark, in the first place, there 
are many parts of our land where there are no Ro- 
man Catholics, and, of course, the difficulty will not 
occur in those places. 

" Secondly, if Roman Catholics choose to exclude 
their children from a knowledge of the Bible, they 
have a perfectly legal right to do so, and we have 
no legal right to prevent it ; nor should we desire 
any such legal right, for the moment we desire any 
such legal right, we abandon the Protestant princi- 
ple and adopt the Papal. Catholic parents are per- 
fectly competent to demand that their children 
should be excused from the Bible recitation, and this 
demand, if made, should be complied with ; but they 
have no right to demand that the Bible should be 
withheld from the schools because they do not like 



ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 145 

it, nor do their objections render it necessary or ex- 
cusable for Protestants to discard the Bible from 
schools. 

"Again, if Roman Catholics desire that their chil- 
dren take their Bibles into the schools, and recite 
from them, by all means let them do so ; and so of 
Jews, let them recite from the Old Testament, if 
they choose, to the exclusion of the New. We al- 
low to others equal rights with ourselves ; but we 
claim for ourselves, and shall insist upon having, 
equal rights with all. I am perfectly willing to give 
to the Roman Catholics all they can justly claim, 
but I am not willing to encroach on any one's rights, 
or the rights of any Protestant denomination, for the 
sake of accommodating the Roman Catholics. Nor 
do I suppose that the Romanists have a claim to 
any special accommodation, for they have never 
yet manifested any particular disposition to accom- 
modate others. Let them have the same privileges 
that our Protestant sects have — that is enough; 
and they have no right to demand, our legislators 
have no right to grant, any more ; and we Protest 
ants will be perfectly satisfied when Protestants 
can enjoy as great privileges in Italy as Roman 
Catholics now enjoy in the United States. In ju- 
dicious practice, I am persuaded there will seldom 
be any great difficulty, especially if there be ex- 
cited generally in the community anything like a 
whole-hearted honesty and enlightened sincerity in 
the cause of pubhc- instruction. 

" It is all right for people to suit their own taste 
M 2 



146 ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 

and convictions in respect to sect ; and by fair means 
and at proper times, to teach their children and those 
under their influence to prefer the denominations 
which they prefer ; but farther than this no one has 
any right to go. It is all wrong to hazard the well- 
being of the soul, to jeopardize great public interests 
for the sake of advancing the interests of a sect 
People must learn to practise some self-denial, on 
Christian principles, in respect to their denomina- 
tional preferences, as well as in respect to other 
things, before pure religion can ever gain a com- 
plete victory over every form of human selfishness. 

" Happily, there are places where religious in- 
struction that is purely denominational can be freely 
given, so that there is no need whatever of intro- 
ducing it into our public schools. The family and 
the Sunday school are the appropriate places for 
such instruction ; and there let each denomination 
train its own children in its own peculiar way, with 
none to molest or to find fault. It is their right, it 
is their duty. 

"As to the objection, that the use of the Bible in 
schools makes it too common, and subjects it to con- 
tempt, as well might it be objected that the sun be- 
comes contemptible because he shines every day 
and illumines the beggar's hovel as well as the bish- 
op's palace. Where is the Bible most respected, in 
Scotland and New-England, or in Italy and Austria? 
The works of man, the robed monarch, may make 
themselves contemptible by being too often seen ; 
but never the works of God. The children may. 



ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR STOWE. 147 

and ought to be, taught to treat the book with all 
possible reverence, and to preserve it as nice and 
unsullied as the Catholic preserves his crucifix : and 
in this way, I am sure, on all the principles of hu- 
man nature with which I am acquainted, that the 
Bible will be no more likely to suffer from the habit 
of daily famiharity than the crucifix. 

" Let no one say that the religious instruction here 
proposed for schools is jejune and unprofitable. I 
do not so view the words of God. In any view, if 
the child faithfully commit to memory so much as 
the single Gospel of Matthew, or the first twenty- 
five Psalms, or the first ten chapters of Proverbs, 
or portions of the book of Genesis, those divine sen- 
tences will be in his mind forever after, ready to be 
called up to check him when any temptation assails 
his heart, to cheer him when any sorrow oppresses 
his soul, to be a lamp to his feet and a light to his 
path ; to be in all respects of more real and perma- 
nent value to him than any creed, or catechism, or 
system of theology, or rules of ethics, of merely 
human origin, ever can be. 

" Why should we prevent so great a good by claim- 
ing what we have no right to claim 1 Are we not 
willing to trust the Word of God to cut its own way ? 
Or can we claim to be Christians at all, while we 
consent to have the Word of God and all Christian 
teaching banished from our institutions of public 
instruction? Let not infidel coldness, Jesuitical intoU 
erance, or sectarian jealousy, rob our schools of their 
greatest ornament and most precious treasure, the 



148 ANOTHER MODE OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 

Bible of our fathers. Let not denominational feel- 
ing so far prevail as to lead us to destroy the great- 
est good while attempting to secure the less, as 
has so often been done in the Christian world here- 
tofore. We are willing to give up much for the 
sake of peace and united effort ; but the Bible, the 
word of God, the palladium of our freedom, the found- 
ation of all our most precious hopes, we never can, 
we never will give up. Let all who love the Bible 
unite to defend it, to hold on upon it forever." 



NOTE A. 

The writer, in the preceding part, has presented a 
mode of rehgious training adapted to schools com- 
posed of children whose parents are of different 
sects. 

There is one modification of this mode, which the 
writer wishes to present to that class of parents 
who not only believe in the Supreme Divinity of Je- 
sus Christ, but are in a habit of addressing their 
worship to Him distinctively ; believing that this is 
the way in which we have access to God the Father, 
who is worshipped as dwelling in Jesus Christ. 
Such suppose that the Bible sanctions alike the 
mode of addressing Jesus Christ distinctively, and 
also the Father distinctively, and that we can pray 
in either mode with acceptance. 

It is believed that parents who hold this view 



ANOTHER MODE OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 149 

will find great aid in the religious training of their 
children by adopting this method. 

Ill commencing instructions from the Bible, let 
the first lesson consist of such texts as the follow- 
ing : 

" Jesus Christ came into the world to save sin- 
ners." 

" And his name is called the Word of Gody 

" All things were made by Him, and without Him 
was not anything made that is made." 

" In whom we have redemption through his blood, 
even the forgiveness of sins." 

" By Him were all things created that are in heav- 
en and that are on earth, visible and invisible, wheth- 
er they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, 
or powers ; all things were created by Him and for 
Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all 
things consist. Every house is builded by some 
man, but He that built all things is God." 

Having thus fixed in the child's mind that the 
Creator of the world is Jesus Christ, and that the 
terms Jesus Christ, God, Jehovah, and the Lord, are 
different names for the same person, then let all the 
Bible history in the Old Testament be read with the 
understanding that the being spoken of through the 
whole of it is Jesus Christ. If any one has doubts 
on this point, let him read President Edwards's work 
on the History of Redemption, and let him also col- 
late all the passages in which God appeared to the 
ancient patriarchs and prophets, and it will be clear 
that there was a Jehovah who sent, and a Jehovah 
N2 



150 ANOTHER MODE OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 

who was the messenger, and that this last was Jesus 
Christ, and the one who always appeared to the 
patriarchs. 

The advantage of this mode of commencing reli- 
gious instructions is, that it presents to the mind of 
a child a Being who can be clearly conceived of, 
and a character which is drawn out in all those ten- 
der and endearing exhibitions that a child can un- 
derstand and appreciate. It thus is rendered easy 
for parents to obey the words of the Saviour, who, 
when his mistaken disciples would have driven 
them afar off, said, " Suffer the little children to come 
unto me." 

If a child is taught, from the first, to pray to Je- 
sus Christ, all that perplexity, doubt, and difficulty 
which many feel in regard to Jesus Christ and the 
place he is to hold in their devotions will be esca- 
ped. Then, if they feel any doubts as to whether 
they understand correctly about the Father, and 
whether they are required to worship him distinc- 
tively, these doubts will easily be removed by these 
words of Christ. 

"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. If 
ye had known me, ye should have known my Fa- 
ther. I am in the Father, and the Father in me. 
The Father dwelleth in me. Believe me, I am in 
the Father, and the Father in me. And whatsoever 
ye ask in my name, thai will I do; that the Father 
may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything 
in my name, I will do it." 

The writer has seen a family of four children, the 



ANOTHER MODE OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 151 

youngest four and the eldest not nine, where the 
mother, who pursued this course, remarked that 
these children seemed to be aided in overcoming 
faults, and strengthened in doing right, by love to 
the Saviour, just as true Christians are ; and that if 
they continued their present habits of feeling and 
conduct, she should not know where to date the 
time when they became pious. 

There is also a mode of practical teaching in re- 
gard to right and wrong, sin and holiness, which tends 
much to aid a child's right apprehension of truth. 

Let the child be taught that Jesus Christ created 
all his creatures for the purpose of making ihem good 
and happy ; that it is not possible for any one to be 
perfectly good and happy, unless he has such a char- 
acter as .Jesus Christ, and that the nearer we come to 
possessing such a character, the better and happier 
we are. Then set forth the character and example 
of Christ, as a perfectly benevolent and self-denying be- 
ing, living not to gratify himself, but to do good to 
others. Show the child that he has not such a char- 
acter, that he is Hving to please himself, and not to^ 
do good, and that this is selfishness and sin. Set be- 
fore him the misery to which selfishness leads, and 
the consequences of it, both here and hereafter. 

Teach the child that the great business of life, to 
us all, is, by the aid of God's Spirit, to change our 
characters, in order to become like Christ ; that it i-s 
a difficult work, and one that we can never accom- 
plish without this aid from God. 

Show him that all the commands of Christ are 



152 ANOTHER MODE OF RELIGIOUS TRAINING. 

designed to keep iis from doing what will injure 
ourselves or injure others, and that these rules are 
so many and so strict, that no one ever will, in this 
life, 'perfectly obey them all. 

Teach him that the true children of Jesus Christ 
are those who love him, and who earnestly are stri- 
ving to obey all his commands. 

Set before the child the command of Christ, " De- 
ny thyself daily, and take up thy cross and follow 
me," and then teach and encourage him every day 
to practise some self-denial in doing good. 

Teach him that the more he practises this self- 
denial for the good of others, the more he becomes 
like Jesus Christ, and that the duty will become 
easier and pleasanter, the more he practises it. 

Inquire daily, especially at the close of the day, 
"whether the child has practised any self-denial in 
doing good during the day, and express satisfaction 
at any success. 

Teach the child to pray for help to overcome self- 
ishness, and to give thanks for Divine aid when he 
•has performed any act of benevolent self-denial. 

If any tendency to self-righteousn*ess and self- 
complacency is discovered, point out his various 
deficiencies, or overt sins, and teach him daily to 
observe and confess to God his faults. 

Teach him that heaven is a world wliere all are 
perfectly free from selfishness, and that those, who 
are selfish, could not be happy there, and will never 
find admittance until they become like Jesus Christ. 
Teach him that this life is designed as a world of 



WORK ON DOxlIESTIC ECONOMY. 153 

trial and discipline, to free us from selfishness, and 
thus prepare us for heaven. 

This mode, in connexion with others suggested 
in the previous part, if faithfully pursued, would 
produce results such as seldom have been seen. 

These views are presented, not to oppose the 
views and opinions of others, but simply to induce 
those who hold them to act consistently with their 
belief. 



NOTE B. 

Of the two books referred to, the first is A Trea- 
tise ON Domestic Economy, by Miss Catharine E. 
Beecher, which has been examined by a commit- 
tee of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and 
deemed worthy of admission as a part of the Mas- 
sachusetts School Library. The following are the 
titles of the chapters : 

1. The Peculiar Responsibilities of American 
Women. 2. The Difficulties peculiar to American 
Women. 3. The Remedies for the preceding Difli- 
culties. 4. On the Study of Domestic Economy in 
Female Schools. 5. On the Care of Health. 6. On 
Healthful Food. 7. On Healthful Drinks. 8. On 
Clothing. 9. On Cleanliness. 10. On Early Ri- 
sing. 11. On Domestic Exercise. 12. On Domes- 
tic Manners. 13. On the Preservation of a Good 
Temper in a Housekeeper. 14. On Habits of Sys- 
tem and Order. 15. On giving in Charity. 16. On 
Economy of Time and Expense. 17. On Health of 
Mind. 18. On the Care of Domestics. 19. On the 



154 THE FAMILY RECEIPT BOOK. 

Care of Infants. 20. On the Management of Young 
Children. 21. On the Care of the Sick. 22. On 
Accidents and Antidotes. 23. On Domestic Amuse- 
ments and Social Duties. 24. On the Economical 
and Healthful Construction of Houses. 25. On 
Fires and Lights. 26. On Washing. 27. On Starch- 
ing, Ironing, and Cleansing. 28. On Whitening, 
Cleansing, and Dyeing. 29. On the Care of Parlours. 
SO. On the Care of Breakfast and Dining Rooms. 
31. On the Care of Chambers. 32. On the Care of 
the Kitchen, Cellar, and Store-room. 33. On Sew- 
ing, Cutting, and Mending. 34. On the Care of 
Yards and Gardens. 35. On the Propagation of 
Plants. 36. On the Cultivation of Fruit. 37. Mis- 
cellaneous Directions. 

The other work is called the American Housekeep- 
er's Receipt Book, and the following is the Preface 
and Analysis of the Work. 
Preface {for the American Housekeeper'' s Receipt Book.) 

The following objects are aimed at in this work : 

First, to furnish an original collection of receipts, 
which shall embrace a great variety of simple and 
well-cooked dishes, designed for every-day comfort 
and enjoyment. 

Second, to include in the collection only such re- 
ceipts as have been tested by superior housekeep- 
ers, and warranted to be the best. It is not a book 
made up in any department by copying from other 
books, but entirely from the experience of the best 
practical housekeepers. 

Third, to express every receipt in language which 



OBJECTS OF THE WORK. 155 

is short, simple, and perspicuous, and yet to give all 
directions so minutely as that the book can be kept 
in the kitchen, and be used by any domestic who 
can read, as a guide in every one of her employments 
in the kitchen. 

Fourth, to furnish such directions in regard to small 
dinner-parties and evening company as will enable 
any young housekeeper to perform her part, on such 
occasions, with ease, comfort, and success. 

Fifth, to present a good supply of the rich and ele- 
gant dishes demanded at such entertainments, and 
yet to set forth so large and tempting a variety of 
what is safe, healthful, and good, in connexion with 
such warnings and suggestions as it is hoped may 
avail to promote a more healthful fashion in regard 
both to entertainments and to dail^r table supplies. 
No book of this kind will sell without an adequate 
supply of the rich articles which custom requires, and 
in furnishing them, the writer has aimed to follow 
the example of Providence, which scatters profuse- 
ly both good and ill, and combines therewith the cau- 
tion alike of experience, revelation, and conscience, 
" choose ye that which is good, that ye and your 
seed may live." 

Sixth, in the work on Domestic Economy, togeth- 
er with this, to which it is a Supplement, the writer 
has attempted to secure, in a cheap and popular form, 
for American housekeepers, a work similar to an 
English work which she has examined, entitled the 
Encyclopedia of Domestic Economy, by Thomas Weh- 
ster and Mrs. Parkes, containing over twelve hundred 



156 • OBJECTS OF THE WORK. 

octavo pages of closely-printed matter, treating on 
every department of Domestic Economy ; a work 
which will be found much more useful to English 
women, who have a plenty of money and well-train- 
ed servants, than to American housekeepers. It is 
believed that most in that work which would be of 
any practical use to American housekeepers, will be 
found in this work and the Domestic Economy. 

Lastly, the writer has aimed to avoid the defects 
complained of by most housekeepers in regard to 
works of this description issued in this country, or 
sent from England, such as that, in some cases, the 
receipts are so rich as to be both expensive and un- 
healthful ; in others, that they are so vaguely ex- 
pressed as to be very imperfect guides ; in others, 
that the processes are so elaborate and fussing as 
to make double the work that is needful; and in 
others, that the topics are so limited that some de- 
partments are entirely omitted, and all are incom- 
plete. 

In accomplishing these objects, the writer has re- 
ceived contributions of the pen, and verbal commu- 
nications, from some of the most judicious and prac- 
tical housekeepers, in almost every section of this 
country, so that the work is fairly entitled to the 
name it bears of the American Housekeeper's Receipt 
Book. 

The following embraces most of the topics con- 
tained in this work. 

Suggestions to young housekeepers in regard to 
style, furniture, and domestic arrangements. 



TOPICS TREATED OF. 157^ 

Suggestions in regard to different modes to be 
pursued both with foreign and American domestics.. 

On providing a proper supply of family stores, 
on the economical care and use of them, and on 
the furniture and arrangement of a store-closet. 

On providing a proper supply of utensils to be used 
in cooking, with drawings to illustrate. 

On the proper construction of ovens, and direc- 
tions for heating and managing them. 

Directions for securing good yeast and good breado. 

Advice in regard to marketing, the purchase of 
wood, &c. 

Receipts for breakfast dishes, biscuits, warm 
cakes, tea cakes, &c. 

Receipts for puddings, cakes, pies, preserves, pick- 
les, sauces, catsups, and also for cooking all the 
various kinds of meats, soups, and vegetables. 

The above receipts are arranged so that the more 
healthful and simple ones are put in one portion, and 
the richer ones in another. 

Healthful and favourite articles of food for young 
children. 

Receipts for a variety of temperance drinks. ^ 

Directions for making tea, coffee, chocolate, and 
other warm drinks. 

Directions for cutting up meats, and for salting 
down, corning, curing, and smoking. 

Directions for making butter and cheese, as fur- 
nished by a practical and scientific manufacturer of 
the same, of Goshen, Conn., that land of rich but- 
ter and cheese. 





158 TOPICS TREATED OF. 

A guide to a selection of a regular course of fam- 
ily dishes, which will embrace a successive variety, 
and unite convenience with good taste and comfort- 
able living. 

Receipts for articles for the sick, and drawings of 
conveniences for their comfort and relief. 

Receipts for articles for evening parties and din- 
ner parties, with drawings to show the proper man- 
ner of setting tables, and of supplying and arran- 
ging dishes, both on these and on ordinary occasions. 

An outline of arrangements for a family in mod- 
erate circumstances, embracing the systematic de- 
tails of work for each domestic, and the proper mode 
of doing it, as furnished by an accomplished house- 
keeper. 

Remarks on the different nature of food and drinks, 
and their relation to the laws of health. 

Suggestions to the domestics of a family, design- 
ed to promote a proper appreciation of the dignity 
and importance of their station, and a cheerful and 
faithful performance of their duties. 

Miscellaneous suggestions and receipts. 



The following extract from the Preface to the 
Domestic Economy will exhibit the origin of these 
two works, and some of the objects aimed at by 
the writer : 

" The author of this work was led to attempt it, 
by discovering, in her extensive travels, the deplo- 
rable sufferings of multitudes of young wives and 
mothers, from the combined influence of poor health. 



DEFECTIVE DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 159 

poor domestics, and a defective domestic education. The 
number of young women whose health is crushed, 
ere the first few years of married life are past, would 
seem incredible to one who has not investigated this 
subject, and it would be vain to attempt to depict 
the sorrow, discouragement, and distress experien- 
ced in most families where the wife and mother is a 
perpetual invalid. 

" The writer became early convinced that this evil 
results mainly from the fact, that young girls, es- 
pecially in the more wealthy classes, are not trained 
for their profession. In early life, they go through a 
course of school training which results in great de- 
bility of constitution, while, at the same time, their 
physical and domestic education is almost wholly 
neglected. Thus they enter on their most arduous 
and sacred duties so inexperienced and uninformed, 
and with so little muscular and nervous strength, 
that probably there is not one chance in ten, that young 
women of the present day, will p9,ss through the 
first years of married life without such prostration 
of health and spirits as makes life a burden to them- 
selves, and, it is to be feared, such as seriously in- 
terrupts the confidence and happiness of married 
life. 

" The measure which, more than any other, would 
tend to remedy this evil, would be to place domestic 
economy on an equality with the other sciences in fe- 
male schools. This should be done because it can 
be properly and systematically taught {not practical- 
ly, but as a science), as much so 2lS political economy 



160 THE REMEDY PROPOSED. 

or moral science, or any other branch of study ; be- 
cause it embraces knowledge, which will be needed 
by young women at all times and in all places ; be- 
cause this science can never be properly taught until 
it is made a branch of study ; and because this meth- 
od will secure a dignity and importance in the esti- 
mation of young girls, which can never be accorded 
while they perceive their teachers and parents prac- 
tically attaching more value to every other depart- 
ment of science than this. When young ladies are 
taught the construction of their own bodies, and all 
the causes in domestic life which tend to weaken 
the constitution; when they are taught rightly to 
appreciate and learn the most convenient and eco- 
nomical modes of performing all family duties, and 
of employing time and money; and when they per- 
ceive the true estimate accorded to these things by 
teachers and friends, the grand cause of this evil 
will be removed. Women will be trained to secure, 
as of first importance, a strong and healthy consti- 
tution, and all those rules of thrift and economy 
that will make domestic duty easy and pleasant. 

" To promote this object, the writer prepared this 
volume as a text-book for female schools. It has 
been examined by the Massachusetts Board of Ed- 
ucation, and been deemed worthy by them to be ad- 
mitted as a part of the Massachusetts School Li- 
brary. 

" It has also been adopted as a text-book in some 
of our largest and most popular female schools, both 
at the East and West, 



ITS PRACTICABILITY. 161 

" The following, from the pen of Mr. George B. 
Emmerson, one of the most popular and successful 
teachers in our country, who has introduced this 
work as a text-book in his own school, will exhibit 
the opinion of one who has formed his judgment 
from experience in the use of the work : 

*' * It may be objected that such things cannot be 
taught by books. Why not? Why may not the 
structure of the human body, and the laws of health 
deduced therefrom, be as well taught as the laws of 
natural philosophy 1 Why are not the apphcation of 
these laws to the management of infants and young 
children as important to a woman as the application 
of the rules of arithmetic to the extraction of the 
cube root? Why may not the properties of the at- 
mosphere be explained, in reference to the proper 
ventilation of rooms, or exercise in the open air, as 
properly as to the burning of steel or sodium? 
Why is not the human skeleton as curious and in- 
teresting as the air-pump; and the action of the 
brain, as the action of a steam-engine ? Why may 
not the healthiness of diiferent kinds of food and 
drink, the proper modes of cooking, and the rules 
in reference to the modes and times of taking them, 
be discussed as properly as rules of grammar, or 
facts in history ? Are not the principles that should 
regulate clothing, the rules of cleanliness, the ad- 
vantages of early rising and domestic exercise, as 
readily communicated as the principles of mineral- 
ogy, or rules of syntax? Are not the rules of Je- 
sus Christ, applied to refine domestic manners andi 
02 



162 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 

preserve r good temper, as important as the abstract 
principles of ethics, as taught by Paley, Wayland, 
or Jouffroy 1 May not the advantages of neatness, 
system, and order, be as w^ell illustrated in showing 
how they contribute to the happiness of a family, 
as by showing how they add beauty to a copy-book, 
or a portfolio of drawings ? Would not a teacher 
be as well employed in teaching the rules of econ- 
omy, in regard to time and expenses, or in regard 
to dispensing charity, as in teaching double, or sin- 
gle entry in book-keeping] Are not the principles 
that should guide in constructing a house, and in 
warming or ventilating it properly, as important to 
young girls as the principles of the Athenian Com- 
monwealth, or the rules of Roman tactics] Is it 
not as important that children should be taught the 
dangers to the mental faculties, when over-excited 
on the one hand, or left unoccupied on the other, as 
to teach them the conflicting theories of political 
economy, or the speculations of metaphysicians ? 
For ourselves, we have always found children, es- 
pecially girls, peculiarly ready to listen to what they 
saw would prepare them for future duties. The 
truth, that education should be a preparation for ac- 
tual, real life, has the greatest force with children. 
The constantly-recurring inquiry, " What will be 
the use of this study]" is always satisfied by show- 
ing, that it will prepare for any duty, relation, or of- 
fice which, in the natural course of things, will be 
likely to come. 
" ' We think this book extremely well suited to be 



FARTHER TESTIMONY. 163 

used as a text-book in schools for young ladies, and 
many chapters are well adapted for a reading book 
for children of both sexes.' " 

To this the writer would add the testimony of a 
lady who has used this work with several classes of 
young girls and young ladies. She remarked that 
she had never known a school-book that awakened 
more interest, and that some young girls would learn 
a lesson in this when they would study nothing else. 
She remarked, also, that when reciting the chapter 
on the construction of houses, they became greatly 
interested in inventing plans of their own, which 
gave an opportunity to the teacher to point out dif- 
ficulties and defects. Had this part of domestic 
economy been taught in schools, our land would not 
be so defaced with awkward, misshapen, inconve- 
nient, and, at the same time, needlessly expensive 
houses, as it now is. 



The copyright interest in these two works is 
held by a board of gentlemen appointed for the pur- 
pose, who, after paying a moderate compensation 
to the author for the time and labour spent in pre- 
paring these works, will employ all the remainder 
paid over by the publishers, to aid in educating and 
locating such female teachers as wish to be employ- 
ed in those portions of our country, which are most 
destitute of schools. 

The contract with the publisher provides that the 
publisher shall guaranty the sales, and thus secure 
against losses from bad debts, for which he shall re- 



164 CONTRACT WITH THE PUBLISHERS. 

ceive five per cent. He also shall charge twenty 
per cent, for commissions paid to retailers, and also 
the expenses for printing, paper, and binding, and 
make no other charges. The net profits thus de- 
termined shall be divided equally, the publisher ta- 
king one half, and paying the other half to the Board 
above mentioned. 



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